(UPI) A South Carolina family said a store's bakery refused to print "Summa Cum Laude" on their son's graduation cake, confusing the term for profanity.

Cara Koscinski of Charleston said her son, Jacob, graduated summa cum laude -- with highest honors -- from a Christian-based home-schooling program on Saturday and she wanted to celebrate the occasion with a cake from Publix.

Koscinski said she ordered the cake online and ran into an obstacle when the order form told her "Summa Cum Laude" was not acceptable due to the inclusion of profanity.

The mother said she used the "special instructions" part of the order form to explain what the term meant and included a link to a website that explained the Latin.

Koscinski said her husband picked up the cake from the store and brought it to Jacob's graduation party, where it was unveiled in front of his friends and family with the message "Summa -- Laude" printed on the icing.

"It was unbelievable. I ordered the special graduation edition cake. I can't believe I'm the first one to ever write 'Summa Cum Laude' on a cake," Koscinski told The Washington Post.

Koscinski said she had to explain to party guests, including Jacob's 70-year-old grandmother, why the store would omit the word "cum" from the cake.

"My son was humiliated!!!" Koscinski wrote on Facebook. I seriously couldn't make this crap up!!!!

Publix apologized to the family and offered to refund the price of the cake.

"The cake experience was kind of frustrating and humiliating because I had to explain to my friends and family like what that meant. And they were giggling uncontrollably. At least my friends were," Jacob Koscinski told WCIV-TV.

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