Dad: High School Valedictorian Denied Diploma for Saying 'Hell' During Grad Speech

At this point, it will be a cold day in "he**" before Kaitlin Nootbaar gets her high school diploma.

That's because her dad, David, says the Prague (Okla.) High School grad -- who was also the school's valedictorian and a 4.0 student -- is being denied her diploma because her graduation speech this spring included the word "hell" instead of "heck."

“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,” David told KFOR-TV.

So what exactly happened a few months ago that has the school so upset? According to David, Kaitlin decided to channel a quote from the popular "Twilight" series:

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.

David says the school is demanding Kaitlin write an apology letter. She's refusing, saying she did nothing wrong.

Kaitlin is set to start college this fall on a full-ride scholarship -- which her dad says makes the high school's move all the more perplexing.

As for the school, it's not talking to the press to explain its side of the story. “This matter is confidential and we can not publicly say anything about it," Superintendent Dr. Rick Martin told KFOR.