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Maybe this is the reason that the school has a low tolerance for four letter words, however.
I took 2 minutes and looked up Prague, Oklahoma. As I suspected the name is a clue to who founded it: Chezh Catholics. The town has 2,100 people and a kolache festival every year and it's the home of the....
Being given a diploma should be based on the fact of how she performed academically. So changing one word has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she deserves a diploma for her hard work.
I'm more than sure that if you weren't given a paycheck for all your hard work you've done throughout the week because you changed one word, or used the wrong tone, you'd have a different attitude.
Let's look at it from a different angle.
Suppose that you are all dressed up to attend a wedding. You and your spouse are dressed to the nines in tux and long gown. The two of you are the best man (whose brother is the groom) and the matron of honor (whose best friend is the bride). You have hired a high school senior to babysit your three year old and five year old, as this formal wedding is not an appropriate place for them to be and there is no nursery. The person you hire is the school valedictorian and you really think she is trustworthy. After all, you are allowing her to take care of your children. Ten minutes before she is scheduled to arrive, she calls and tells you she will be unable to come because her boyfriend has unexpectedly gotten tickets to the absolutely most fantastic rock concert to hit town in twenty five years. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for her and she is going to take it and go to the concert. And, no, she does not know anyone who will be available to work in her place.
Would you not say that she had violated the trust you placed in her? Would you feel that you had the right to be more than a teeny bit upset?
Your babysitter has completely disregarded the fact that she has now caused a major disruption in the wedding. She has displayed no consideration for the feelings of others and has placed her wants above the needs of others. In essence, she had a contract with you to work that night, and she has decided not to honor it.
By submitting a script for her speech in which she used "heck" and receiving approval of that script, this student was entering a contract to abide by the script. Her principal was trusting her to do so. She violated that trust when she substituted "hell" instead. Why did she not submit a script using "hell" instead? That is obviously what she wanted to say. She either used "heck" because she had reason to know that "hell" would not be approved and she would be directly told not to use it.
This student put her own desires first. She did what she wanted to without regard to the feelings of the school administration and without regard to the composition of her audience. She needs to own up to her mistake and apologize.
Edited to add: I am not the only one who feels this way. I found this after writing this post:
I took 2 minutes and looked up Prague, Oklahoma. As I suspected the name is a clue to who founded it: Chezh Catholics. The town has 2,100 people and a kolache festival every year and it's the home of the....
National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague.
I think there's your reason.
So descendants of Czech Catholics deserve no respect?
You still have not brought up a reasonable answer as to why this girl doesn't deserve her diploma?
All she has to do to get her diploma is apologize for her error in judgment. It's not a matter of deserving it. It's a matter of her having the class to admit that her grandstanding had collateral damage and was hurtful to some people.
It seems there are some descendants of Czech Catholics who do not cotton to four letter words in graduation speeches.
You're comparing a babysitter cancelling at the last minute and causing a major change in plans to a teenager saying ONE WORD in a graduation speech? Oy vey.
You're comparing a babysitter cancelling at the last minute and causing a major change in plans to a teenager saying ONE WORD in a graduation speech? Oy vey.
It's called hyperbole. You may want to look it up.
All she has to do to get her diploma is apologize for her error in judgment. It's not a matter of deserving it. It's a matter of her having the class to admit that her grandstanding had collateral damage and was hurtful to some people.
I think this is where most people are disagreeing with you. Her diploma (which she has already earned, and yes, that does matter) should not be dangled in front of her to get her to do one last thing. I'm afraid her amount of "class" is not relevant to any of this. It's why kids get a diploma whether they lack class or not, because it's all based on grades and attendence.
Oh, and you cannot show that there was any "collateral damage", and not everything labeled "offensive" truly is. So you might think about dropping that claim as part of your argument.
You can make a moral argument on this all you like. That's fine. Maybe - just maybe - she should apologize. Just like I should start having salad for dinner more often. But no one's going to punish me for not doing this, and no one should try to punish her for saying the word "hell" (especially in the context it was used), at least not in this way. It's completely over the line.
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