The nayshon's top publik skool?

First, consider this:

Mainland High School was ranked 403rd among the nation's top 1,200 schools in Newsweek Magazine's "America's Best High Schools" report from August 2005.

Now, here's what the valedictorian had to say to his class about that same school (bold emphasis mine):

The valedictorian...us[ed] his June 20 valedictory speech to describe his education as "hollow" and one filled with "countless hours wasted in those halls."

"I felt like the most important questions were not asked." said Kareem Elnahal, the top rated student at Mainland Regional High School in Linwood, N.J. "Things like ethics, things that defined who we are, were ignored so in that way I thought it was hollow."
...
Elnahal told his audience that "the education we have received here is not only incomplete, it is entirely hollow."

"[It is] grade for the sake of a grade, work for the sake of work." Elnahal added....

"Ladies and gentlemen, the spirit of intellectual thought is lost," Elnahal said. "I know how highly this community values learning, and I urge you all to re-evaluate what it means to be educated," he concluded before leaving the ceremony without collecting his diploma.

Elnahal told Cybercast News Service that teachers refused to discuss certain topics because they were too closely tied to religious views. In his valedictory speech, he argued that there is a connection between a person's faith and that person's power of reasoning.

"Is there a creator? And if so, should we look to it for guidance," Elnahal asked the audience gathered at the high school graduation ceremony. "These are often dismissed as questions of religion, but religion is not something opposed to rationality. It simply seeks to answer such questions through faith."

What's even better is that what ticked off one of the administrators wasn't just what he said, but the fact that he didn't get it approved ahead of time. But aren't schools bastions of free speech and expression?

Whatever. I just wish I could have been there....