Family faces charges for cheering at high school graduation

Four Mississippi residents are facing charges for cheering at a graduation.

"He said, 'You did it, baby!' And waved his towel and went out the door," said Linda Walker.

"I understand they could escort me out of the graduation. But to say they're going to put me in jail for it?" said Ursula Miller, an aunt of the graduate.

WREG reports a week after the ceremony for Senatobia High School, one graduate's family members were served with court papers. The superintendent filed disturbing-the-peace charges against them.

The court documents include the possibility of a $500 fine and six-month jail term for each. The superintendent had asked the audience to hold their cheers and applause until every graduate's name had been called.

The chief of the campus police told The New York Times: "We were instructed to remove anyone that cheered during the ceremony, which was done. And then Jay Foster, the superintendent, came and pressed charges against those people."

Hosts on the morning shows seemed to feel the charges were unnecessary.

"I get it, the superintendent said before things, 'Let's just hold our applause until the end.' Well, you know what, just add an extra half hour into the festivity and let people clap," said "Fox & Friends" anchor Steve Doocy.

Local station WJTV posted the story to its Facebook page, and it seems viewers were pretty split.

Some said an arrest is going too far and that graduation is a special experience when people should be allowed to cheer for their children.

But another commenter explained he couldn't hear his sons' names called at their graduations, so he agreed with the charges.

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