A school’s first black valedictorian wasn’t allowed to speak. The mayor gave him a microphone.

Lovett was the first black student to leave University Preparatory Charter School for Young Men as the top academic performer since the school's founding in 2010.

His school decided — under mysterious circumstances that it yet has to explain — that he could not deliver his address, and the June 22 graduation came and went without its valedictorian's remarks.

But Lovett knew someone: Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren (D), in whose office the teen has interned for two years.

And so Warren offered City Hall as an alternative to the graduation stage, then used social media to amplify his remarks.

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"To Mr. Munno, my principal, there's a whole lot of things I've wanted to say to you for a long time," the valedictorian said in the video published July 2. " … I'm here as the UPrep 2018 valedictorian to tell you that you couldn't break me. And I'm still here, and I'm still here strong."

Munno said there is "another side of the story" but otherwise declined to comment to The Washington Post on Thursday, citing privacy concerns. He previously said the decision to keep Lovett from speaking was made by the school, WIVB reported.

Lovett told the Democrat and Chronicle that he had had numerous run-ins with Munno in his six years at the preparatory school, which teaches boys in grades seven through 12. Lovett said he led a five-day student strike after the school declined to buy laboratory safety equipment.

"There's a lot of wrong things that go on at that school, and when I notice it I speak out against it," he told the newspaper.

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