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Subscribe to RSSAn Oklahoma high school valedictorian's diploma is being withheld because she used of the phrase "what the hell?" in her speech. KFOR's Sarah Stewart reports.
An Oklahoma high school valedictorian who was denied her diploma because she used the world “hell” in her commencement speech doesn’t plan to apologize for her choice of words, her father says.
David Nootbaar said he is furious that Prague High School is withholding his daughter Kaitlin's diploma because of her use of the word during the graduation speech in May. “She has worked so hard to stay at the top of her class and this is not right,” he said. “She earned that diploma. In four years she has never made a B. She got straight A’s and had a 4.0 the whole way through."
School officials declined to comment. "This matter is confidential and we cannot publicly say anything about it," Prague schools Superintendent Rick Martin said in a statement to KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City.
David Nootbaar said his daughter was inspired by the movie “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" when she wrote the speech. “Her quote was, ‘When she first started school she wanted to be a nurse, then a veterinarian and now that she was getting closer to graduation, people would ask her, what do you want to do and she said ‘How the hell do I know? I’ve changed my mind so many times,’” he said.
He said in the written script she gave to the school she wrote “heck,” but in the moment she said “hell” instead.
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During the ceremony, Nootbaar said the audience laughed and she finished her speech to warm applause. She didn’t know there was a problem, he said.
But trouble surfaced when she went to school to pick up her graduation certificate last week, her father said.
“We went to the office and asked for the diploma and the principal said ‘Your diploma is right here but you’re not getting it. Close the door we have a problem,'" Nootbaar said.
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He said the principal told Kaitlin she would have to write an apology letter before he would release the diploma.
Kaitlin doesn’t plan on writing an apology letter because she doesn’t feel she did anything wrong, her father said. He said her family stands behind her decision.
Kaitlin starts classes at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in a few days on a full scholarship.
KFOR-TV's La'Tasha Givens contributed to this report.
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Fifty four pages of comments and counting, talk about pushing a button. By the way to spell prinicpal, just remember the principal is not your pal.
Funny, a school with the Red Devils as a mascot would have a problem with the word Hell!
Funny, a school with the Red Devils as a mascot would have a problem with the word Hell!
I'd write a letter to the editor and tell him to stuff his diploma. $2.50 and a High School diploma will buy you a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons.
Wow, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, all that hard work, only for a jerk principal to jeopardize her whole high school accomplishments over a word that's not even a curse word, or racial comment, or political ranting or fanatic cause. I think that principal has some serious issues, probably jealous or something, to make a big issue over something that I'm sure most people already forgot. Inferiority complex maybe?
Who gives a rats azzzzz.
What I'd like to know is where do the school systems find such dumb ass people to educate our children. The principal is most likely a far right religious fanatic. I hope the A hole idiot denying this girl her diploma gets a uncureable case of "shingles"
I think her choice of words were inappropriate and she may want to offer up an apology to some close family and friends who may have been offended. But I feel her diploma should not be withheld from her. That said, I'm just curious how far some of you people would take the freedom of speech thing. If she had used the words **cksucker, mother**cker, or *hithead, would she have the right to use those words in a public speaking arena? Would she still be within her freedom of speech rights, assuming the attending audience age group was somewhere between 3 yrs old and 85 yrs old? Just curious if there are any boundaries here.
You don't believe in the Constitution and the word is not offensive unless you live in a vacuum? I'm sure you are one of those who would ban books because you found them offensive in language. Oklahoma is like living in the Spanish Inquisition, but it is the bible belt. Don't people have better things to do with their time. Graduation speeches are so trite and trivial anyway. Who cares.
Simply withhold the principal's paycheck until an apology is issued directly to the student and her family, both verbally and in writing. If that doesn't work, then withhold any fothcomming retirement benefits until the stupidity is corrected by this jerk administrator.
LOL
People do need to be respectful to their audience. That being said, I seriously doubt that practically anybody in the audience is offended by the word "hell", especially in that sentence. If she had said "Go to Hell" it might be different, but she didn't. If Dr. PHil can say "Hell, No!" on a regular basis, and not get censored, the word has hit the main stream. Give it a rest already.
For those who have not lived in Oklahoma; Oklahoma is an interesting place to live.
It is a state that is involved in a continual civil war with itself. It is the
big bad city slickers that live in Oklahoma City and Tulsa vs. the rest of the
state. Oklahoma City wants to move into the 21st century as well as parts of Tulsa.
The rest of the state is a throwback to the 1950s.
They have their share of wingnuts in Oklahoma. Once drove through a town called Perry, OK... someone painted all these signs everywhere talking about some corrupt person that went on for miles and miles.
This doesn't surprise me at all considering the source...probably some religious fundie nutjob pissed off about a girl getting to be valedictorian. I wonder if a guy had said that if he would have been punished. I could understand if she dropped the fbomb, but hell is mainstream word usage these days. I guess this is what we have come to expect from red states in the south and midwest.
What we need is someone who can bring some of these states out of the stone age! Did anyone hear that Judge Heads brother Dick was the principal of that school?.... just asking.
Give me a freaking break. I use the word hell several times everyday, granted it has an o after it but still...I'm just saying.....give the girl her diploma and shut the hell up...lol
the hell you say...just had to say it...
hell-hell-hell-hello! She could be trying to say hello before saying goodbye to hihihigh school.
Prague High School... Wikipedia shows it was founded in 1906. What should be an institution of significance in the community now will be a joke, hopefully not for the next century but for a while. Sad.
Oklahoma is bible belt Baptists who use the word hell prolifically when it comes to sending all non believers to HELL.
Good ol Oral Roberts would sent a lot of non supporters to hell if he could have. Would it have been ok to use Hades instead?. That superintendent is just a pin headed governmental moron who answers to a fundamentalist school board. He just followed his marching orders of the creationists.
I have 4 college degrees and lost my diploma years ago. It is just a piece of paper, who cares. It is meaningless unless you react to that joke of a school administration.
That's right. We need to keep them girls in their place. Bad enough that she thinks so needs to go off an get some more uppity learning when her rightful place is to start serving a man and having babies.
This story is silly...People don't actually live in Oklahoma...do they?
How rocks for heads never change very fast.....I was 18 in 1961 and had saved some money and wanted to go to Europe that summer. My father (whose family was from Oklahoma) stopped me one day and said, "I hear you want to go to a foreign country." "Yes, Dad, I am very excited." "Let me safe you a lot of money...why not just borrow my car and drive down to Oklahoma. You can't get more foreign than they are."
If this girl had spent more time reading the BIBLE, she wouldn't even be familiar with use of the word HELL or DAMNED for that matter...oh wait...
Have you ever been arrested by the police, if so read the police report and more than likely it will say that you got arrested because you were disorderly when you said f this, f you, f f f. The cops cuss at you and then turn around and say you started the whole situation by cussing at them. This girl didn't even use the f word. Somewhere along the lines our schools and law enforcement think words show intent to commit crime somehow. The only times words are criminal in nature are when you use them to threaten or scare the crap out of people, you know like "fire" at the movie theater. The Principle along with the cops is on a power trip tripping. Wake the hell up and realize you cannot destroy anybodies life you want to and when people stand together and fight back against this stupid dumbass crap then you (Principle) will be held accountable. The people have spoken.
Valedictorian speech inspired by “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse". That's the real tragedy.
It is really surprising how much ignorance is being spouted by people here who probably consider themselves very "enlightened". There was a community standard here (why else would she have used "heck" in the draft), she violated it. She owns the appology. End of story. All the other BS about Oklahoma being backward, red-neck hicks just shows how even the "elightened left", is really just a mob.
submission of speech written on paper should not be use for purpose of censure. In comparing which is worse or illegal , using oral "hell" instead of written heck is not as bad as the authorities to use censureship to violate free speech law to deny a legal document call High School Graduate Certificate.