Kaitlin Nootbaar battling Oklahoma school for diploma after using ‘hell’ in speech
An Oklahoma high school valedictorian, Kaitlin Nootbaar, is being denied her diploma because she used the world “hell” in her commencement speech and now doesn’t plan on apologizing.
photo/Piotr VaGla Waglowski, http://www.vagla.pl
Her father, David Nootbaar, says he’s 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.”
“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'” Nootbar explains.
In the written script Kaitlin gave to the school she wrote “heck,” but in the moment she said “hell” instead.
Nootbaar said the audience laughed, she finished her speech to warm applause and didn’t know there was a problem 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,'” Nootbaar said.
The principal told Kaitlin she would have to write an apology letter before he would release the diploma.
