Three US students are in hot water for disobeying teachers and uttering the word "vagina" during a reading from the well-known feminist play "The Vagina Monologues" at a high school forum.

The three 16-year-old girls received a one-day suspension from John Jay High School, in New York, after refusing to agree to drop the word from their presentation last Friday.

The school, however, announced this week that it was postponing the suspension following outrage by some of the girl's peers as well as parents.

Eve Ensler, the author of "The Vagina Monologues" has meanwhile called the girls to express support and has offered to come to the school to speak on the issue.

School principal Rich Leprine said in a statement that the punishment meted out to the students was not for using the word vagina but rather for insubordination.