The problem with smart kids is that they’re, well, smart. They come to realize that words are merely a means to convey a message, and otherwise neither good nor bad. And so, as Prague, Oklahoma Valedictorian Kaitlin Nootbaar gave her inspirational speech to her classmates and their teary eyed parents, the word “hell” slipped from her lips. And apparently all hell broke loose, at least in Prague High School principal Rickey Martin’s (I didn’t even know he got a legit job) mind.
From KFOR :
The initial curiosity is that the school required Kaitlin to provide a written script in advance, suggesting that there are trust issues to begin with. Whether this was because they feared Kaitlin’s potty mouth or just felt constrained to control student speech at every opportunity is unclear. Perhaps the good people of Prague have particularly sensitive ears, and the principal is not only a talented dancer, but deeply caring about the delicate residents.Kaitlin Nootbaar graduated from Prague High School, the Red Devils, in May and was named valedictorian.
When tasked with writing the graduation speech, her dad said she got her inspiration from the movie “Eclipse: The Twilight Saga.”
Nootbaar said, “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 in the written script she gave to the school she wrote “heck,” but in the moment she said “hell” instead.
In any event, as Valedictorian Kaitlin showed up a few days later to get her diploma, she learned that all was not well in Prague:
“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.
He said the principal told Kaitlin she would have to write an apology letter before he would release the diploma.
The demand that Kaitlin write a letter of apology is fascinating, given that it comes at the critical juncture where she is no longer subject to the principal’s control. The diploma is a piece of paper, documenting the fact of graduation, just as the ceremony is where the magic words are spoken confirming that a student has met the requirements for graduation. What it’s not is an opportunity to assert one final demand of control over a student’s thoughts and speech. Tough luck, bro, but she’s no longer under your thumb.
Patrick at Popehat, sneaking into Balko’s Agitator for an impromptu guest post, had this to say:
You pig-fucking coward. You shit-eating child born from a buggered arsehole. You piss-colored pile of carrion. You dung-fly. You prickless and ball-lacking catamite. You son of a street-walking widow who never had a man except for money. You cock-sucking arse-licking defiler of sacred shrines, you brainless heartless gutless cockless offspring of an imbecile and a deformed cow, you flea-bitten child-robber who poisoned your father and raped your mother and sold your sisters to the Dutch and carved up your brothers for sale in a butcher’s shop, you gutter-hugging trader in second-hand excrement, why won’t you give this girl her high school diploma?
Some might view this as painful to sensitive eyes, and indeed, I know mine twitched a bit, particularly at the use of catamite. But you survived. I survived. And so too will the fine people of Prague, Doc Martin included.
In Tinker v. Des Moines School District, Abe Fortas wrote that free speech doesn’t stop at the schoolhouse gate. Of course, he also wrote:
But conduct by the student, in class or out of it, which for any reason—whether it stems from time, place, or type of behavior—materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others is, of course, not immunized by the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech.
Does the use of a minor curse, “hell,” involve substantial disorder or invade the rights of others? Since it was uttered at graduation, it clearly couldn’t have disrupted classwork. Perhaps the principal felt that her fresh mouth invaded the rights of others to attend a high school graduation and hear only sweet words of deep meaning inspired by The Twilight Saga?
Nootbaar said the audience laughed, she finished her speech to warm applause and didn’t know there was a problem.
It’s troubling that the audience laughed. Because she said “hell?” Was it that shocking? People laugh when something is funny. They also laugh when they’re nervous, because something said has gone a bit beyond their comfort level. That the audience applauded at the end of a valedictory speech isn’t quite novel, and whether the applause was warm or perfunctory is a matter of subjective interpretation. Polite applause sounds a lot like warm applause.
It is not, however, the reception of the audience that controls. No doubt there were some who thought nothing of Kaitlin’s curse, while there were others, prissy folks who believe that no foul language should mar the sanctity of a high school graduation, who were deeply offended by the word. One can only wonder what happens when they watch television, or perhaps the occasional porno flick in aid of their boring marriages (this is sheer speculation on my part).
Under almost any other circumstances, the utterance of a word as inconsequential as “hell” would have not raised an eyelash. That the principal (or perhaps some other person of significance among those charged with maintaining school purity) either found it so offensive, or “inappropriate” raises it to the level of concern that makes this a story worthy of consideration.
It’s just a word, and barely a bad one if words could be bad. At least Kaitlin didn’t use her opportunity to express her views to inform Rick Martin that her first thought as she entered the hallowed halls of Prague High School every school day for the past four years was that he was a blithering asshole. But even if she had, so what? It was graduation, and there was no classwork left to disrupt.
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It occurs to me that the many-talented Mr. Martin lives in mortal fear throughout his days. He’s worried that someone might think ill of his inability to dominate teenagers and is thus unsuitable for his job. And he might lose his job if this dyke were to be breached.
He had a thumb and he was ready to use it to stop the flood. It’s a pity he missed the dyke and his thumb ended up a few feet south of the back of his neck.
It is probably for the best that I was not Valedictorian of my class (I was #5), especially since that was the year that my school decided to no longer recognize the honors students by calling there names out when we walked down the aisle. I think I would have tweaked my speech a bit to address that issue.
As to the girl in the story, she should just write the apology and figure out a way to work in the word hell as many times as possible. Ex. “It seems that some of you may have been offended by my use of the word hell. It seems that I chose badly when I used the word hell in my speech. I am sorry that my use of the word hell bothered you, etc”
That was put very delicately.
I wasn’t valedictorian either, which I’m sure was for the best. Your idea about the letter is great, but just because she is smart doesn’t mean she has such a refined sense of humor.
I hope she tells him to go to hell. ; ]
I hope her parents raise hell. Starting with him and going up the chain to wherever the capital of Oklahoma is.
And if none of that works, did you need to hang your deed on the wall to live in your house? Me neither. Has anyone ever asked to see your marriage license? Me neither. There must be other analogies.
Oh and do you know where your HS diploma is? My Regents is in a box in the crawlspace. Somewhere.
I hope she forgets all about it as she moves forward to college. Neither Prague High School nor Dr. Rick Martin exist for her anymore. They are just vague memories of no consequence.
Yeah. Come to think of it everyone else will too. Maybe his secretary will locate it and mail it to her.
A friend of mine noticed this before I did. Devils as the school mascot. Red Devils!
A few others have noted the irony. I’m indifferent (or, as the opposite of irony, wrinkly).
Sir, oh hell (couldn’t resist climbing on). When the bible thumpers from the “great state of confusion” locate this Post, it’ll be on.
When I threw a cigar box ¼ full of glitter in the air at the stroke of three, celebrating the end of elementary as I knew it, the teachers treated it as if I fired a gun. The long hair didn’t help in my defenselessness & no media to the rescue.
Now, when I see the evil sparkles, I’m reminded of repeating my last year of elementary & hear the daily announcement – anyone that disrupts class will be failed. Really can’t blame them due to studies showing that glitter bombs kill and mentioning bad places in public is the gateway to pimples or was it teen pregnancy?. Thanks.
Hell!
Do you kiss your children with that mouth?
Those sparkles can get into someone’s eye and blind them, you know. Or make them look really pretty. One or the other.
Sir, quite true, and to be honest everyone knew I was going to do it and thank the opposite of hell they ducked & covered as I yelled hell’s bells’.
Ironically, the girls indeed thought it was very “pretty” vs. being millions of shinny bullets. I’d be one rich mo-fo, if I’d just incorporated it into a new line of shinny make-up. Thanks.
I only write that word. I seldom say it. Like when your captcha aggravates me. Like now. No one around.
Schools have an awfully short memory for this sort of thing. My school had limited numbers of seats for family at graduation, and we were given three tickets each, to maximize acrimony amongst our relatives.
I sold my tickets for a total of around 200 dollars, which, while not against the rules, upset the principal when he discovered it. He withheld my diploma until I wrote an apology and returned the money, which was not forthcoming. Two years later, the school mailed me the diploma.
I despise the new captcha. It’s impossible to read.
Young entrepreneurship is never appreciated.
Not one word about a school bully. What gives?
You didn’t cut your teeth on the dogma the way I did anyway. Fear and trembling.
Apologize to whom? One wonders…to the principal, for uttering such a shocking word? The other students (most of whom, I suspect, either found it funny or don’t care)? The adults in attendence? Is the letter to be published in the school newspaper? The local daily? Of course, the apology that leaps to my mind is ‘I’m sorry that I exposed your secret weakness to words, and I hope your arch-nemesis doesn’t use this to terrorize the city of Prague.’ Of course, I read too many comic books when I was in school. And sold adult magazines; the principal at my school merely made the request that I not sell such items on school property, which I found reasonable enough.
If I were in the principal’s place, I would have called in Miss Nootbaar for a lecture on honesty (since she broke her specific written promise on what she would say) and foul language, and ask for an apology. I would make clear that since she is now a graduate, I would want only an apology that came of her own free will, and then give her her diploma so she could think about it and respond if and as she saw fit.
However, tolerance means we sometimes have to accept the actions of those who disagree with us. And I’m on the principal’s and Superintendent Martin’s side here.
(1) Last time I checked, submitting graduation speeches in advance is SOP.
(2) Same caveat, graduates-to-be remaining students until the moment they are specifically declared graduates is also SOP. The school (high school or college) *can* punish almost-graduates for what they do at commencement…that’s an important tool for keeping order.
(3) Tinker v. Des Moines has, rightly or wrongly, been pretty much eviscerated over the years. The courts have, as far as I can tell, made crystal-clear that K-12 schools can limit the speech of their young charges in ways that adults don’t have to accept. Keep in mind that the tone of the school is set by what happens at all its events, not just in the classroom while work is going on.
(4) The facts are very different anyway. Kaitlin wasn’t protesting an arguably unjust war that was killing thousands of Americans – whether in Vietnam, Afghanistan or elsewhere. She was quoting a popular movie while discussing her career goals – or rather lack thereof.
(5) In fact, commencement is a very special occasion…and as anyone who has tried to remove school-sanctioned prayers at graduation ceremonies will point out, the audience is a captive one.
You compare it with TV and even home porn viewings…do you really want to equate public with private standards? In 21st century America, you probably won’t like the results.
(6) As I mentioned above, she also broke a solemn promise. She submitted one thing and said another. Whatever the rights and wrongs of forbidding the H word (which means more in Oklahoma than in, say, New York) or requiring valedictorians to submit their speeches in advance, once Kaitlin submitted hers she was bound to abide by it.
(7) As you point out, awkward laughter sounds a lot like true laughter, and polite applause sounds a lot like warm applause. To outsiders.
That’s a very good reason why those of us who weren’t there – let alone who can’t even name the state capital or be bothered to Google it (Oklahoma City) – should M[O]OB.
The principal and superintendent were there, quite possibly the school board members who could, as John Burgess pointed out, possibly fire them were there and many of the citizens who can fire the school board and who pay school taxes were there.
Our jobs and our tax money aren’t on the line. Who the heck are we to tell the people of Prague, Oklahoma how to run thei
Written promise? Solemn oath? My, you are certainly a very obedient person. No doubt your faithful adherence to the rules will endear you to many a principal (or other authority figure).
By the way, why exactly did you ever check to determine if submitting a valedictory speech to the principal for approval in advance was SOP? I have a sneaking suspicion you never checked. I know I never did.
What is the procedure in American universities? Do they ask newly-admitted students to show the original high school diploma to the registrar? In Finland, that is the usual practice. And if that is the case, withholding the diploma is a horrible thing to do. It might result in the revocation of the university admission, when the student is unable to present her credentials.
On the other hand, the usual practice in the Finnish schools is that the actual diplomas are handed out at the graduation ceremony. After you walk out of the school after the ceremony, with a diploma in your hand, it is likely that you never go back and never contact the high school again, save for a reunion decades later.
I was, both in the senior high and junior high, the best pupil of my class, but in Finland, valedictory speeches are usually given by a pupil selected by the teachers. The worst such speech I heard in primary school. The valedictorian, a sixth-grader, started her speech, without hint of self-irony: “O Principal, you great leader of a great school!” I hope that no one had really checked her speech beforehand.
No disploma is ever shown to anyone except the grandparents. The last thing universities are given is the midyear transcript in senior year of high school to make sure that the student they admitted is still performing up to snuff. After that, it’s only for the benefit of the frame-sellers.
Having sat through a valedictory speech recently, I was saddened by the laudatory comments toward her alma mater. She had an opportunity say something profound to her classmates, and instead persisted in the same aggrandizing, vapid adoration that won her a seat at the administration’s table. The young woman was hard-working and smart, but more concerned with appeasing those who held control over her life than using her one and final opportunity to say something meaningful. I’m not suggesting she should have been critical of anyone, but that the need to kiss ass was past and the chance to say something real was at hand. It’s a shame to see opportunity squandered.
First off, I never said anything about an oath. As a lawyer, you no doubt know the difference between oaths and other promises.
In any case, also as a lawyer you presumably understand the importance of keeping your promises.
As for advance submission being SOP, I had checked back when I was in high school (you will note that I said “last time I checked”), and have heard nothing since to indicate that has changed.
Any other unwarranted assaults on my credibility you’d like to make?
Don’t get all butthurt, Jeffrey. As a lawyer, I realize how little you understand about law and lawyers, yet I allow you to comment anyway. As seriously as you take yourself, don’t assume that anyone else cares. This is a law blog. You are not a lawyer, as is invariably apparent from your comments. The only thing your pontifications add is a reminder to lawyers about how little some people grasp and how inclined they are to be ignorantly obsequious to power.
Broke a promise for changing one word? Oh please, she got caught up in a moment, it happens. The article doesn’t even say for sure that it happened purposefully, could have been nervous and she would up parrotting what she had heard from the movie.
As for the laughter: some could find it funny, regardless of whether “hell” or “heck” was used, that she’s realizing as she gets older that there are alot of possibilities out there, and she doesn’t know now what she wants to do.
As for a lack of degree goals, she’s a high school senior. For goodness sakes, look at statistics of college students.
In 2005, MSNBC reported that 80% of incoming college students had not chosen a major, and 50% change majors at least once. Other sources estimate that as many as 80% of students will change majors. What you call lack of career goals, most call honesty.
Reminds me of another mid-western dustup involving a different four letter word. Quite a few years ago River City, IA took great offense at the word ‘pool’, as in billiards, not swimming. And not just the word, but the activity. Perhaps it was the activities that go on in hell, or that it may be the ultimate destination of some in the audience or on the stage that upset the principal. But wait, hell is a fictional place isn’t it? The community response by the good citizens of River City, IA to the threat of ‘pool’ to the morals of their youth was to divert them from such dastardly deeds (hmmm, diversion to the good path – now that might be an interesting way to address those who commit minor infractions – but that is for another century). River City, IA turned to that all American activity…no, not baseball, but A MARCHING BAND! They turned to that world renowned criminologist, Prof. Henry Hill – yes, that was his name, not to be confused with the Henry Hill of Gambino Mob fame from the 1960’s which gave us “Wiseguys”, the movie. Prof. Hill had perfected his schtick by traveling from town to town throughout the middle of our great growing country in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s convincing the elders that to avoid the damnation of ‘pool’ they should invest in their children’s future and what better way than to teach them to play a musical instrument, and congregate with their peers marching and making a joyful noise. He convinced these otherwise staid Protestants (evangelicals weren’t in vogue back then – neither were Mormons) to invest government funds to support the band – oh the waste of public money – it would lead, 100 plus years later to a great backlash. Suave, sophisticated, with a gay twinkle in his eye, Prof. Hill convinced the town elders of the righteousness of this endeavor. And,after taking his hefty administrative fees, he tried to leave town. Thinking they had been duped, the rubes of River City, IA sought street justice against the professor and his faithful sidekick, when, at the last minute, the band arrived to his rescue. Blaring that classic (in any era) ’76 Trombones’ they marched thru town and anointed Prof. Hill their hero.
Where is Robert Preston when we need him?
Can we get back to some serious law and simply ignor this fool in OK?
Next time, could you just sing a song from the show?
1. I disagreee with the school admin behaviour on multiple levels. Even with a prepared speech, even if reading it, one may innocently and unintentionally go off-script with the wrong word. So even aside from the other issues, are people supposed to be punished for a slip of the tongue which produces a synonym?
2. I also don’t necessarily agree it’s a “curse” word. At least since the recent revision, every Sunday at (RC) church when we say the Apostle’s Creed, we say “…He descended into Hell”. Unless there were some separation of church and state argument being made here, I don’t see the issue (obligatory “Simpsons” reference to Bart saying he can say “damn” because he was taught it in church…).