It's Dr. Phil. Welcome to today's The Real Story. We'll throw some headlines at you. Parents,

call in lawyers after refusing to accept 12-year-old daughter's spelling bee loss.

Are you joking me? No, I'm not joking you. That's not a joke. That's the headline.

It even made headlines across the ocean in the U.K.

Parents threaten L-A-W-S-U-I-T.

I'll use it in a sentence.

Parents threatened lawsuit after daughter barred from spelling bee.

That was in the London Times.

Now, okay, what are they talking about here?

A 12-year-old student studied every word on an official list, but in the final moments,

the Tampa Bay Regional Spelling Bee came up with a word that was not on the list. The word was

Paul Bearer. Paul Bearer. You know, they carry caskets at

funerals. Come on, Hank, pick up the pace. And I guess we're going to have a funeral for common

sense. She misspelled it. She lost. And that's why I'm making it today's real story.

Because look, let's face it, all but one child loses.

11 million kids participate in spelling bees across the country

competing for 245 spots in Scripps National Spelling Bee.

That means 99.99% of those kids lose right off the bat.

And 99.99% of parents tell their kids, hey, chin up, you did your best.

At least they had a child that cared whether they could spell a word or not.

I think back to when I was growing up in the fifth or sixth grade,

you couldn't have got me in a spelling bee if you put me in handcuffs and a straitjacket.

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