A Northern Kentucky high school student’s graduation speech sparked debate over the weekend after he urged his classmates to seek Jesus Christ as “your answer” for “the way, the truth and life.”

He didn’t receive his diploma and was asked to meet with his school principal because he added the religious message to his pre-approved speech, according to videos he posted on TikTok.

Micah Price said online, “I was told beforehand I wasn’t allowed to bring up Christ. … I did anyways.”

He graduated May 24 from Campbell County High School in Alexandria, about 30 minutes south of Cincinnati. The high school, which has about 1,500 students, draws from a predominantly suburban and rural part of the county.

Price said in his speech: “Class, before another word is to leave my mouth I must give the honor, the praise, and the glory to my lord and savior Jesus Christ, who in his very words tells us he is the light, he is the way, the truth and life.

Class, anyone in the audience today, I’m here to tell you that if you don’t have any of those things in your life and can’t seem to find the answer, then my lord and savior is your answer.”

After the graduation at Truist Arena at Northern Kentucky University, he said an assistant principal told him he’d have to speak to the district school board about what he did because he went “off-script” during the speech.

“I went against school policy, school rules. I went against that because I serve a higher power because I serve Christ. I do no one’s bidding but God,” he said in a TikTok on Sunday. “So, if anyone’s in the wrong, I am. I deserve to get punished.”