There is new unrest among students in Prague. No it is not a new Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. This is Prague, Oklahoma where the valedictorian at Prague High School, Kaitlin Nootbaar, was denied her high school diploma for saying the word “hell” in her graduation speech. It would however seem to be in keeping with the school’s mascot: the little Devil (below).
Nootbaar spoke about how when she first started school she wanted to be a nurse, then a veterinarian. However, now as she is about to graduate, she doesn’t know and when people ask her she says ‘How the hell do I know? I’ve changed my mind so many times.” Her script originally said “heck” but she used “hell” in the excitement of the moment. When she later went to pick up her diploma, the principal refused to hand it over and told Kaitlin she would have to write an apology letter before he would release the diploma. Her father is irate that after getting straight As, the school has added a new condition on receiving her diploma.
Nootbaar is scheduled to start college where she appears to have tentatively decided “what the hell she wants to do”: she wants to study marine biology.
Notably, while countries like England have effectively decriminalized profanity recently, American towns continue to arrest or fine people for using foul language, including a recent a new measure in Massachusetts. Even lawyers can find themselves on the the wrong side of the line on swearing.
I have no problem with school officials barring swear words. Even though “hell” is pretty mild and commonly used, some people find it offensive or inappropriate. She made a mistake. However, that should be a matter of a stern lecture and perhaps a request for an apology. The withholding of a diploma seems to be rather draconian in the circumstances.
I am not sure that the school has such authority since Nootbaar has technically already graduated. I believe it did have the authority to bar her from the ceremony or even remove her due to conduct unbecoming a speaker. Courts give schools broad leeway on such questions. However, she completely the course work as well as the ceremony. I am not sure that she is technically still a student under the jurisdiction of the school. What do you think?
Notably, “hell” is not one of the seven deadly words that you cannot say on television as stated by the late George Carlin. Those words are below but I warn that the video includes words that would not be appropriate in a graduation at Prague High School.
Source: KFOR
I agree with Zarathustra above. The kid should get a group together with tee shirts that have the word HELL written across the front. They should go to the courthouse and file a pro se Replevin Complaint against the PrinciPAL. That one aint no pal. Replevin is a remedy one can employ to obtain an item from someone not entitled to it who has possession. I would like to see the response in writing from the defendant. The kids, now grads and now out of the control of control freak, should show up in court with their tee shirts. It is clear that the kid had already earne dthe diploma, otherwise she would not be sent up to the podium to squeek. It is her property. Teacher, teacher, I declare, you just showed your underwear.
Gene H…….. Just recently re-watched that Lewis Black special on HBO….. Sadly Lewis is correct. I myself cried, when both, Carl Sagan & Christopher Hitchens died. They were beams of light in the Darkness…….
Zarathrustra,
In re Sagan and Carlin: Lewis Black has a theory on that: “The good die young but pricks live forever!”
One must assume the Principal is a knuckle dragging mouth breather who never heard of either the First Amendment or the concept of ownership of an earned document. Also, I would wager the Principal never counted on the power of global social and news media taking in interest in the matter. I typed in ‘Prague High School Oklahoma’ and got a 959,000 hits on Google. The high school web site is down, but there are untold thousands of pages lambasting the Principal for being terminally clueless and giving Ms. Nootbar a “You Go Girl!”
I suspect the Principal has by now encountered language that makes Ms. Nootbaar’s little slip of the tongue pale by comparison.
The darkness is spreading…. First we lost Carl Sagan, then we lost George Carlin, and then this past year we lost Christopher Hitchens…. Proof there’s no ghod……. If there was a ghod he’d remove some of these Christian Butt-holes……………. who poison everything they touch
hahahaha! “that’s why they call them Pews”~ George Carlin
(thanks for my morning chuckle….)
In answer to Idealist707, my friend, you can do as I just did…. I looked it up, and I discovered that in 2012 alone, 6 Anti-Evolution bills have been introduced in the Oklahoma legisture this year……. so far….. Does that answer you question?
Apparently the school is feeling the pressure. Their web site is down and they have stopped answering their phones. Seems its a barrage from the social media causing the onslaught. I’m saying Friday is about right for a “mediated” settlement. Any odds on the religious persuasion of the Prague principal?
Gene
No bet. I’m sure you’re right.
Who wants to bet she’ll have her diploma without an apology being issued by the end of the week? What’s Vegas have to say on that?
I think we have a First Amendment issue with a state actor depriving a citizen of an earned right because of the content of her speech. It’s subsequent punishment.
I was in Louisiana back in the mid 90s for a conference. In a very small town below NO on highway 61 I was in a gas station & met an 18 YO boy & his mom. He had just been expelled from school the day before graduation, he was to be the valedictorian but the principal told him he had to get a hair cut if he expected to graduate! He had shoulder length hair. He was worried about his full ride at one of the Ivys being taken away (I forget which).
Too many school officials are bullies and great kids pay the price.
What nal said.
She earned her diploma and she did it with honors.
They have no legal right to deprive her of it.
I’d not only tell them to stick it, I’d stick it to them by filing suit against the district, the school and every single member of the school board, the appropriate district supervisor and every member of the school staff.
Just to see how long it too to build the requisite fire under the principal’s butt.
Zara,
I’m not kicking you, just us humans. We kick sand on unknowns, without a trial or material evidence.
We accuse them just on the basis (my assumption) of their state name and associate it to the infamous trial in Tennessee. Guilt by association?
Now how fair is that? Can you give your take? Much oblogied if you do.
The posts preceding seem to take it as I do.
Was the professor posting a faux question, to see our social acuteness?
He wrote:
“I am not sure that she is technically still a student under the jurisdiction of the school. What do you think?” Seems like he openly asks about technicalities. Oh, the old lurifax.
I noticed that she decided on a major that will keep her FAR from OK. This must have proven to her, the wisdom of staying as far from OK as possible.
Random thoughts and questions: Enjoy or skip ’em!
She will be a shining light, a major contributor of the coming adult generation.
Why do children not enjoy the privilege of free speech and the big C?
The professor writes:
“I have no problem with school officials barring swear words. Even though “hell” is pretty mild and commonly used, some people find it offensive or inappropriate. She made a mistake.”
Well, some people will always find some speech offensive. When did that become a point of law?
She made a mistake? Of law or decorum? (A tangent: How many times was her speech edited by the principal?)
And courts give the schools wide latitude on such matters (paraphrase–too lazy to copy). Yes, and here we have seem even more repressive ones in terms of decorum, hair and body decorations, appearance and clothing, etc. (Hope they did not forget taking drugs at class breaks.)
But when does maintaining order as the police do, become the Modus Opereandi in schools. Someone quoted Benjamin Franklin recently. Hope others remember at least the spirit of his 3 sentences given here.
And as usual I demonstrate my thickheadedness in not getting the point of the post.
It was meant as morning exercise for lawyers to do, to amuse the professor and demonstrate their skills learned. A ha-ha subject with the undermessage of “how stupid the farmers are in Oklahoma, hee, hee and they named it Prague, Just that will do, hee hee”, or should that be rendered tee hee.
Turning it into a serious educational and rights issue was a “sorry, my big…”. Gauche. Not lawyer material at all. How sweet it is. No apologies offered.
She should tell the principal to take the diploma and shove it up his ass.
Can you even imagine what her punishment might have been if she’d uttered the blasphemous word ”EVOLUTION”? She might have been burnt at at stake, on stage, at the Graduation……..Oh what ‘Hell’ it must be to be brought up in a badkwards state like Oklahoma………
Now she should tell them to go F**K themselves…… The Bible thunping Ass-holes