A 1990 graduate of a northeast Arkansas high school who went on to a career in national television has said that officials at his alma mater have withdrawn an invitation for him to speak at today’s commencement ceremonies because he is homosexual.
In a letter to Sloan-Hendrix District Superintendent Mitch Walton, former student Bryant Huddleston, now a Los Angeles television producer, wrote that he was disappointed in the school’s decision to “recant your invitation for me to be the keynote speaker … based solely on the fact that I am gay.”
As of Thursday, no one was scheduled to speak at the rural high school in Imboden in northwest Lawrence County, and Walton, in a letter to news media, denied having invited Huddleston or anyone else to speak at graduation.
“Contrary to what has been said, no invitation was extended this year to anyone,” Walton wrote. “As superintendent, I have the authority to decide about who the speaker will be or whether we have a speaker at all.”
He declined to comment.
“I’ve already said what I’m going to say and I won’t comment further,” he said.
Huddleston also denied an interview request, saying his sister would graduate from Sloan-Hendrix High School on Friday and he didn’t want to “overshadow” her happiness of the graduation.
In his letter to Walton, Huddleston wrote that he was the school’s student body president for two years despite being bullied for his sexuality then.
“Mr. Walton, your decision here is like being bullied again twenty-three years later,” Huddleston wrote.
“I’m curious,” he wrote. “Did you think my speech would have focused on recruiting youngsters and passing out ‘Go Straight to Gay’ cards over sharing the tools that I used to achieve success? … I was hoping to empower your students to continue their education. My speech would have also touched on the importance of women, like my sister, who will go out into the world and know that they can now pull their chairs right up to the table of equality.”
Huddleston was a television anchor for KAIT-TV, Channel 8, in Jonesboro before moving to California where he’s produced television shows for E! News, Access Hollywood and the Bravo TV network.
School Board President Steve Huddleston, who is Bryant Huddleston’s father, did not return several telephone messages. Board member Aaron Murphy also did not return messages.
Someone at board member Preston Clark’s home who answered the phone said Clark was busy and hung up. Clark did not return the call.
In his letter to media, Walton said his decision to forgo having a graduation speaker was discussed over the past year. “My decision … was to discontinue the use of outside speakers and thereby shorten an already lengthy graduation program,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, at another district, concerns over school prayer led to cancellation of sixth-grade graduation ceremonies, the superintendent said.
The Riverside School District School Board chose not to hold graduation ceremonies for sixth-graders at West Elementary on May 19 and East Elementary on May 23 after a parent expressed concerns about students praying at the event, said Superintendent Tommy Knight.
Riverside School Board members met Monday evening and voted to cancel the graduations at the district in Lake City and Caraway.
“It’s been discussed before if we should hold graduations,” Knight said. “Not all sixth grades have graduations. It’s a nonissue.”
He said the main reason to cancel the events was because of the prayer, though.
“I don’t want to comment any further,” he said.
Parents have said they may hold ceremonies at an area church for the sixth-grade graduates.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 05/10/2013