Oklahoma school denies deploma to Valedictorian after she says "hell" in speach

PRAGUE, Okla.– There’s a bit of diploma drama going on between a local high school and that school’s valedictorian. David Nootbaar is furious his daughter’s school is keeping her diploma. He says, “She has worked so hard to stay at the top of her class and this is not right.”

Kaitlin Nootbaar graduated from Prague High School in May and was named valedictorian. When tasked with writing the graduation speech, her dad says she got her inspiration from the movie “Eclipse: The Twilight Saga.” Nootbaar says, “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 h*** do I know? I’ve changed my mind so many times.”

He says in the written script she gave to the school she said “heck,” but in the moment she said h*** instead. Nootbaar says the audience laughed, she finished her speech to warm applause and didn’t know there was a problem. That was until she went to pick up the real certificate this week. “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,” says Nootbaar. He says the principal told Kaitlin she would have to write an apology letter before he would release the diploma. A move dad believes is illegal.

Entire article- kfor.com...

Wow this is absurd. What is even more ironic and stupid about this is the school mascot is "The Red Devils."

So they can have a Devil as a mascot but saying "hell" is forbidden?

That's just down right ridiculous. As if 'hell' is a bad word. People say far worse than that.

Let the gal have her diploma. Boo on the school .Booooo.

You know I almost missed why it was so absurd...until i realized this was in oklahoma....them thar folk still view women folk as 2nd class and not on par...perhaps if the offending tounge was a man instead of a woman...there'd be no problem forkin over the diploma.

Still, the high school cannot withhold a diploma on grounds of discipline...academics maybe....but not as punishment for discipline. I'd tell the principal to GFY.

As a matter of fact, which school is it? I'll tell him myself....

Just crazy conservatism we can see everywhere...

Hope they hold her diploma and cause her money damage, get sued and loose not just money but the job as well.

She's never even had a B. She has a 4.0 GPA. There's a good news video at the source.

I have read about a kid that had his diploma withheld because he Tebowed on stage Source and 4 others because their families cheered too loudly at the graduation! Source

Stupid control freaks! Who do these people think they are?

But the sad truth is that it is PROBABLY legal. There's probably something in the school's rules that states that all punishments for wrongdoings must be fulfilled before getting their diplomas. If a kid has 5 detentions and hasn't served them, they can keep his diploma until he does. But these people are ABUSING that rule, IMO... in order to control the kids.