Editor’s note: Zander Moricz, Pine View School’s 2022 graduate, said he was asked to censor parts of his graduation speech. But the U.S. Department of Education asked him to give his original speech in Washington this week. The following excerpts of the speech were released by the DOE nationwide.

In my position, I am asked, what can be done to help the children of Florida? The answer. Listen. Listen to the students and respect what they say enough to act on it. Respect our warnings enough to mobilize around them. Respect our please enough to vote on them...

I was my school’s first openly gay class president, and I am way too young for that to be the truth. But it is my community’s promise that each time a bar is raised, it is used as a rung to be scaled on the ladder we climb towards freedom.

As we advance upwards, we look back not due to fear of falling but to find our footing and to see the great distances that we have come, because the climb doesn’t begin on the same rung for everyone, and if we are all to make it, to enjoy the same views of dignity across our spacious skies, then we must offer hands to those beneath us.

Zander Moricz is a recent graduate of Pine View School.