Yearbook quote issue resolved for Georgia senior bound for TSU Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 6:10 AM EDT Updated: May 20, 2014 09:22 PM Tuesday, May 20, 2014 10:24 PM EDT Posted:Updated: May 20, 2014 09:22 PM 
 
 High school senior Paris Gray thought she might have her chance to walk at graduation taken away after the quote she put in the yearbook. (Courtesy: WSB-TV) Administrators learned Gray's quote using elements spelled out "To back that a@% up" when using their abbreviations. (Courtesy: WSB-TV) 

 By Carl Willis 
 
 UPDATE: Paris Gray and her family met with the school's principal and the area superintendent on Tuesday. They apologized for the miscommunication and said they would not deny her giving a speech at graduation. The superintendent challenged her to "give the best speech ever." 
 
 A student says fallout over her quote in the yearbook is threatening to ruin her senior year. 
 
 Paris Gray is a senior class vice president, a member of SADD, the Beta Club, and a leader on campus at Mundy's Mill Hgih School. 
 
 Now, she could be kept from speaking at graduation next week. 
 
 "I think their reaction was beyond what it should have been because nobody understood it," said Paris Gray. 
 
 She received an in-school suspension and was kept from participating in a senior walk last Friday after yearbooks were distrubuted, all due to a quote she left near her portrait. 
 
 The message was: "When the going gets tough just remember to Barium, Carbon, Potassium, Thorium, Astatine, Arsenic, Sulfur, Uranium, Phosphorus." 
 
 Gray tells Channel 2's Carl Willis the message wasn't flagged by any editors or adults. 
 
 Friday, administrators learned that by using periodic table the elements spelled "To back that as_ up." 
 
 "My first reaction was, you are such a nerd," said Gray's mother Zarinah Woods. 
 
 "Basically, it was me just saying start all over again," said Gray. "You have to go back and start all over." 
 
 Administrators were not pleased. 
 
 Paris was kept from participating in the senior walk, and she was slated to give the inspirational speech at the graduation ceremony, but says an assistant principal told her she was out. 
 
 "It just completely destroyed me, and my mom's been telling me don't let it ruin my happiness but it's like really taking a big toll," said Gray. 
 
 The principal called shortly after the mother and daughter spoke with Willis. 
 
 A school district spokesperson says that no decision has been made and that the area superintendent and the principal would meet with Gray's mother Tuesday morning. 
 
 Irresistible Headlines
– It seems school administrators in Clayton County, Georgia, should take another chemistry class: Yearbooks had already been distributed at Mundy’s Mill High School by the time they decoded a secret—and somewhat racy—message in the quote selected by the senior class vice president. Paris Gray's quote read, "When the going gets tough just remember to Barium, Carbon, Potassium, Thorium, Astatine, Arsenic, Sulfur, Uranium, Phosphorus." The problem? When you decode those elements by looking at their symbols on the periodic table, the last part of the message translates to, "Back that a-- up." Miffed administrators gave her an in-school suspension and banned her from participating in a senior walk last week, and told her she couldn't speak at next week's graduation ceremony as planned, reports WSB-TV. After media outcry and a meeting with Gray's family yesterday, however, the school’s principal and the area superintendent changed their minds—Gray will be allowed behind the podium. Before the yearbook was published, no editors or adults noticed any problem with her quote, and she was surprised by the school’s eventual reaction since "nobody understood it.” Her mother's reaction? She called her daughter "such a nerd." As for why Gray chose to use that particular quote, "Basically, it was me just saying start all over again," she explains. "You have to go back and start all over." Gray is headed to Nashville's Tennessee State University in the fall, WKRN notes.