Teen Poet's Use Of N Word During Talent Show May Have Gotten Her Banned From Graduation

(CBS) – An honor roll student at a south suburban high school is taking heat for using a racial slur in a public performance.

Taiylar Ball says she prepared a spoken word piece for her school talent show last Friday. She performed it during rehearsal and it was approved. But at the last minute, she says, she changed a few words and school officials were not happy.

Now, she not be allowed to walk across the stage for graduation this week.

"I don't think I need to apologize for the content of my poem," Ball tells CBS 2's Sandra Torres.

The performance was during a talent show at Homewood Flossmoor High School. Ball says her poem combatted stereotypes of African Americans.

She says students gave her a standing ovation. But school officials weren't thrilled because of her inclusion of the N word – she says it was to make a point.

Ball was banned from prom the next day. Now, she's not sure she'll be able to attend graduation on Sunday.

"I stood up for what I believed in I stayed strong through everything, and hopefully not only did people enjoy my poem, hopefully they got the overall message, and didn't just get the N word part," she says.

And even though mom wishes her daughter would apologize she feels this is a teachable moment.

In a statement, the school said, in part: "There were many amazing performances at the talent show, including this student's powerfully written and delivered spoken word. It is unfortunate that it included additional content that was not previously approved by the audition committee at the dress rehearsal."