Santa Ana High School Valedictorian Priscilla Arceo gave an amazing televised speech tonight as she represented our city in the #GraduateTogether telecast, for the Class of 2020, with President Barack Obama and Lakers great Lebron James.

Arceo credited her mom, during her speech, for having the courage to leave her abusive husband, and for working so hard to help Arceo to succceed. She is now heading to U.C. Santa Barbara.

Arceo was one of several students highlighted in an O.C. Register article published in 2013 about the effort to educate people about the dangers posed by diabetes. At the time Arceo was a student at Heninger Elementary School.

Our graduates missed out on having formal graduations and proms because of the COVID-19 pandemic but Arceo has reminded us how awesome our young people are. They have a bright future despite our grim present.

I am told by the way that former Santa Ana City Councilman Sal Tinajero, a debate coach and teacher at the SAUSD, had a lot do to with getting Arceo onto the TV program tonight. Kudos to Tinajero for doing this!