The first prong of our analysis is easy to satisfy. Corder spoke as one of fifteen valedictory speakers at her high school's graduation ceremony. Although her speech did not occur in a traditional classroom setting, the graduation ceremony was supervised by the school's faculty and was clearly a school-sponsored event: Corder's complaint states that she “qualified” as a valedictorian, Aplt.App. at 9, ¶ 14, that the valedictorians were instructed by the principal on how to organize their speech,
id. at 9, ¶ 16, that the principal required the valedictorians to submit their speeches to him for review for content,
id. at 11, ¶¶ 27–28, and that Corder was “escorted by a teacher” to see the assistant principal after the conclusion of the graduation ceremony,
id. at 12, ¶ 31. The school limited the giving of speeches to the valedictorians, who were chosen because of their 4.0 grade point average. A high school graduation ceremony under these circumstances is “so closely connected to the school that it appears the school is somehow sponsoring the speech.”
Fleming, 298 F.3d at 925. As a result, on these facts—where the School District exercised control over valedictory speeches in advance of graduation, and named valedictory speakers based on the School District's qualifications, the School District was entitled to exercise editorial control over Corder's speech as long as its action was reasonably related to pedagogical concerns.