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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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I would love to see her apology note: "aw s#!t I'm sorry..."
Hell, I'll bet she's f#@!in' sorry!
This matter is so inane. talk about puritanical nonsense! This principle must be a load of laughs to hang with. I wonder what hes hiding under his fingernails?
I'm still finding it hard to believe that this isn't a joke of some kind. Seriously!!
This reminds me of this thing... uh what's it called? Oh yeah the First Amendment. They can lecture her but they can't withhold her diploma.
Technically as a graduate they do not even have the right to lecture her. I am pretty sure it is only the piece of paper that is witheld. Anyone requesting a transcript would find that she is a graduate. I graduated from HS 40 years ago, in all that time no one has ever asked to see my diploma. Hell, I haven't seen it myself in probably 39 years.
Actually, this is not a "First Amendment" issue.
Why not? State your case.
She was free to say what she wanted...she did. There is no protection from consequences from protected speech. However wrong it was to withhold the diploma, the Constitution does not protect her right to that diploma.
All the constitutional experts are amusing.....It is not a 1st amendment issue for several reasons, not the least of which is that no one is or was preventing her from stating an opinion. If you think that the use of profanity is protected by the constitution I have an experiment you should try. The next time anyone finds themselves in front of a judge, just try using profanity and see what happens. And if you want to see how far they will go to promote civility, after you are told to stop, just continue cursing in your proud display of your first amendment rights and see where you end up.
She was "invited" to give the address and their are rules in place for a person to follow in order to give that address. She knew the rules, submitted one speech for approval, changed the word after the approval (in violation of the rules), and then delivered the speech.
While it is a silly "offense", she still violated the rules/agreement and the school is using what little power/influence they have in attempts to get an apology. If she has any class at all, she should apologize. She showed a level of disrespect towards those that gave her the privilege to give the address, and a lack of discretion in giving her public address at a school function in choosing to insert a word that some would take offense to. Her actions reflect poorly on her and the school.
M4Ogre, you're no constitutional expert yourself. Curse words can be indeed protected speech. See, Cohen v. California ("F*** the Draft") and Papish v. Board of Curators. The only time the word can be regulated is when it rises to the level of "fighting words" which the valedictory speech clearly didn't because, as the Supreme Court said in Cohen, for the fighting words exception to apply there must be an intent to incite to violence.
As Harlan wrote in Cohen, “For, while the particular four-letter word being litigated here is perhaps more distasteful than most others of its genre, it is nevertheless often true that one man's vulgarity is another's lyric."
The valedictorian should and will get her diploma. She doesn't need to apologize.
Assuming that this young lady is within the average age range of high school seniors ... she was already an adult when the word was uttered. Does the f'ing principal think that young adults have never heard that word before? Does the f'ing principal ever USE that word?
I agree ... this school is now going to have egg on their face and they will be not only giving this young lady her diploma, they will be forking over cash AND a public apology.
What is the matter with these people? Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill. Makes them seem pretty foolish.
its about power for the principal.
Principal is power tripping. I hope the Board re-evaluates his position in the school. Would love to see that happen. What a Jerk!
Obviously, this young girl is smarter than the people handing out the diplomas...give her the diploma...she earned it...I hope she's going to attend a good Northeastern school...they'll appreciate her brains and her willingness to dare to be different.
Oh, by the way, she doesn't owe anything to anybody..and certainly not an apology.
Just out of curiosity, how do you know that the principal was not his class valedictorian?
The school doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. Has the principal never heard of FREE SPEECH!!!!!!!!!!
Some principals are indeed on power trips and have no discretion. When I was in high school, I was called to the principals office where he started yelling at me for parking in the teacher's parking lot. He said: "You think youre' so smart, don't you?" I had no idea what he was talking about, but I finally figured out that my mother was volunteering at the high school and she had driven a car that was listed in my name. Do you think he apologized to me for yelling at me and being insulting? Of course not, he would have lost face and that is all important to principals.
I await the next round on this story when the principal gets his butt nicely kicked up between his ears. This is truly a tempest in a teapot.
Reminds me of that movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The principal in that movie was such a jerk on a power trip.
You Go Girl
This debate seems pretty silly to me, as well. I'm not sure what the big deal is with saying "hell" during a speech. Nonetheless, rules are rules. If she had to formally submit her speech beforehand and she deviated and used "hell" instead of "heck", there should be consequences. And, if the consequences require her to write an apology to the school to get her diploma, I don't think this is worth fighting over. Say you're sorry, and move on. Choose your battles wisely...
It seems to me like the only people who had a problem with it were some part of the school administration. I think you have a point, i think she has a point. In the end the diploma means nothing, it is probably more important that they give it to her than it is for her to have it. The girl wins in the end.
????????????
bone headed response. go tell that to MLK, Rosa Parks, or Jesus.
So what....she said hell big deal. So what they wont' give her the diploma. I never went in to pick mine up, it saved me thirty minutes of effort and it has never affected me one way or the other.
I never walk around my workplace and see people with their highschool diplomas posted up. It's like saying i can get up in the morning brush my teeth and go to work. Her college acceptance letter and full scholarship mean far more and she hasn't even stepped onto her college campus yet.
She should move on, go to college and continue being a smart successful person.
Hmm... sounds like she should have used "Hades" instead. How the Hades would I know?
The girl had already earned her diploma. In OK, how many times have people heard the word "hell" uttered by their preachers in church? Sounds like bigoted, extremely narrow-minded, ignorant school administrators. And I bet superintendent Martin has used the word in a worse context than this girl. She said nothing abhorent. She owes nobody an apology. We all are exposed to worse language on nightly televison, including Martin. The word hell is not a vulgar word.
Oh this is simple, Go to the lawyer. have judge order high school to give diploma, next have school superintendent suspended/principal for inappropriate conduct. She can have the option of suing the school and principal. Have principal write apology letter to student for unlawfully with holding her diploma she earned.
problem solved oh yeah and lastly have the Board of education administrators voted out next term.
FIRE - THE - PRINCIPAL! Gotta make an example out of one of these a$$wholes so the rest of them will get the message and stop doing things like this. Hopefully, she got a full ride to a real university and not one of those right-wing "bible colleges" down yonder.
Right-wingnut born again Christian I presume?
Probably trying to abolish the teaching of evolution too maybe?
Or maybe they are just upset that the student is much smarter than the powers that be in the school district?
People like you make me laugh, the principal is a registered democrat and darned proud of it. So he is one of you, jumping to conclusions and calling names while screaming that you've been wronged. Way to go moron.
Yeah, ahm syure ther wutten no valeridcterians when them thar skool administraters went to skool.
How did you come to the conclusion that she was smarter than the entire school district? Kind of a reach don't you think?
maybe she took that tiresome ole thing called freedom of speech to mean freedom of speech even in school, even in oklahoma. silly girl---- in okie land is hell a swear word?
The most ironic thing about all this is that her high school calls its athletic teams the "Red Devils."
HA!! Are you serious??? That is WAY TOO FUNNY!!!
What a bunch of unbelievable a$$holes. Shows this young girl that if she works real hard, her rights and earnings can still be witheld by Puritanican idiots who don't have half her intelligence.
this is a public school not your religion hell is a make believe place in the bible yes make believe has anybody been there and come back to tell about it ? no.! they should fire the principal for many reasons she did the work and earned the diploma and if he said hell he should be fired for repeating it in the school and if he wrote it down i a letter also it does not say if she is 18 years old or not but if she is she has free speech and if she is under 18 why is he saying hell to a minor and why is he telling her to close the door when she is alone with him an adult male why no 3rd party witness ? like i said it just does not say her age i think it does matter . not much but for what he did he's wrong so i say fire him .
Her father was with her tommy. It would appear that you don't read any better than you write. And you're one of those dangerous people that go off half cocked because you're too damned lazy to consider the facts or the repercussions of your decisions should anyone be stupid enought to act on them.
Those were certainly some of the longest sentences I've ever read. (Using the word "sentence" is definitely a stretch in this case.)
Whut u talkin about Willis?
If this is the full story, then somebody has a screw loose in Oklahoma. What on earth were they thinking? 4.0!!!!! All A's. As OtistheTanker posted, this will come back and bite the person who made this decision right in the rear end BIG TIME! I don't blame her father one bit. I would be so steamed if that was my daughter. MissKitty has it right. Lawyer up. They'll line up to take this case pro bono.
Did she say you could go to hell if you don't get your hand off my arse, or did she turn to the principle and say go to H. E. double tooth picks you old perv. Because one is covered by the first Amendment the other is just cussing out the old fuddy duddy.
Was she ever told that she couldn't use "Hell" in her speech? Seriously, it's not like she was dropping F-bombs, give the girl her diploma, she earned it.
One of my favorite songs is "You Can't Get the Hell out of Texas" by George Jones. Well, you CAN get the hell out of Texas. Start in Dallas and drive north on I-35.
What the hell is wrong with Oklahomans! Bunch of tight @!$%#s...