Senatobia, Miss. (CBS HOUSTON) — Four people who cheered at a Mississippi high school graduation may be thrown in jail after police issued warrants for their arrest. The superintendent who filed the charges said it’s a necessary move and he is demanding order at the ceremony.
Senatobia Municipal School District Superintendent Jay Foster filed “disturbing the peace” charges against four people who yelled at graduation, WREG-TV reports. Miller and Henry Walker were two of the four Senatobia High School graduation ceremony attendees who were asked to leave for cheering on their 18-year-old daughter, Lanarcia Walker, as she crossed the stage.
“He said ‘you did it baby’, waived his towel and went out the door,” Walker said of a brief video showing Henry exiting the ceremony as he cheered.
“When she went across the stage I just called her name out. ‘Lakaydra’. Just like that,” Ursula Miller explained to WREG what she shouted to her niece at the ceremony.
The graduation ceremony was held at Northwest Mississippi Community College, where police said the superintendent asked the crowd not to scream, and to instead hold their applause until every graduate crossed the stage. If unable to do so, cheering individuals were informed they would have to leave the ceremony.
But papers would soon arrive to the cheering family members threatening to throw them in jail.
“A week or two later, I was served with some papers,” Miller told WREG.
Superintendent Jay Foster filed “disturbing the peace” charges against the people who yelled at the ceremony. Arrest warrants were issued with a possible $500 bond that the family members say is ridiculous. Foster declined to do an on-camera interview with WREG but vowed to maintain order at the school’s graduation ceremonies.
“It’s crazy,” Henry Walker said. “The fact that I might have to bond out of jail, pay court costs, or a $500 fine for expressing my love, it’s ridiculous man. It’s ridiculous…Okay, I can understand they can escort me out of the graduation, but to say they going to put me in jail for it. What else are they allowed to do?”
Linda Walker was also angered by the superintendent’s move, “Why assign papers on someone? We don’t have money for anything like that.”
Despite the families’ insistence they were just there to support loved ones, the four are expected in court on June 9.
