Posted on 06/10/2008 4:45:03 PM PDT by Rebelbase
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)- When Rock Hill school officials tell commencement crowds to hold their applause until the end, they mean it — police arrested seven people after they were accused of loud cheering during the ceremonies.
Six people at Fort Mill High School's graduation were charged Saturday and a seventh at the graduation for York Comprehensive High School was charged Friday with disorderly conduct, authorities said. Police said the seven yelled after students’ names were called.
“I just thought they were going to escort me out,” Jonathan Orr told The Herald of Rock Hill, about 70 miles north of Columbia. “I had no idea they were going to put handcuffs on me and take me to jail.”
Orr, 21, spent two hours in jail after he was arrested when he yelled for his cousin at York's commencement at the Winthrop University Coliseum.
Rock Hill police began patrolling commencements several years ago at the request of school districts who complained of increasing disruption. Those attending commencements are told they can be prosecuted for bad behavior and letters are sent home with students, said Rock Hill police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop.
All the cases, except for one that includes a resisting arrest charge, will be handled in city court and are punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Orr said he thinks people should be allowed to cheer.
“For some people, it might be the only member of their family to graduate high school, and it was like a funeral in there,” Orr said.
William Massey, 19, was arrested but said he plans to fight the charge. He said he simply “clapped and gave a little whoop” when his fiancee’s name was called. Massey said there were warnings before the ceremony but none that said he could be arrested.
He said not everyone who cheered was arrested.
“There's a lot more people that did it than six or seven,” said Massey, who graduated from Fort Mill last year.
Fort Mill Principal Dee Christopher says school officials don't ask that offenders be arrested but that he plans to keep a police presence at future graduation ceremonies.
“We think it's important for every graduate's name to be heard and for every person in the arena to be able to see that student cross the stage. ... That's why we have disruptive guests removed,” he said.
Last year in Galesburg, Ill., five students were denied diplomas from the city's lone public high school after enthusiastic friends or family members cheered for them during commencement. Students could get their diplomas after completing eight hours of public service for the school district.
Can you get more uptight than these people? What, were they potty trained at gun point?
Got something plugged up there....
They told us this 15 years ago when my oldest graduated. After all he went thru to get there...well half the gym would have went to jail.
I recently attended the high school graduation of a cousin. There were about 250 kids in his class, and each got cheered on by family and friends as he or she walked across the stage. The school officials announcing the names were loud enough and efficient enough to be heard of over the cheers and didn’t let that disrupt them. It was a very nicely done event.
Are cops just stupid for going along with this?
They told us this 15 years ago when my oldest graduated. After all he went thru to get there...well half the gym would have went to jail.
God..they needed a DUI check point at my graduation..I can only imagine how many of us would have wound up in jail for screaming. We could have taken our class picture behind bars probably.
It will one day be illegal in America to cheer ANY individual accomplishment. Only the collective may be cheered.
I am not particularly litigious, but I think I would probably sue before I'd grovel before some petty tyrant educrat who would deny me the diploma I earned because a relative or friend dared to cheer for me.
LOL.
Z-E-R-O tolerance, baby.
Good.
This is from someone who’s ear was blasted by an airhorn by the idjits sitting directly behind me.
I never did hear my son’s name called.
The last graduation I attended, we left early. The crowd was so rowdy, the school band could not be heard. The principal finally gave up trying to restore order. He had threatened to end the ceremony if things didn’t quite down and they didn’t. The police finally started escorting some of the louder ones out the door.
I could go to a rock concert and see better behavior.
Cheering each graduate turns a dignified event into a hog calling contest. I attended a graduation at George Mason University about 8 or 9 years ago, and the behavior in the audience was totally shameless and hugely disruptive. Some cheering sections for graduates went on and on and on.
Next year I think they should just escort the trouble makers out. I think that sends a clear enough message.
Obviously they hadn't gone to English class.
I agree. The level of behavior is getting really bad at such ceremonies. When a high school has six or seven hundred graduates to march across the stage, such disruptions mean either extremely long ceremonies or some students don’t hear their names announced. And just escorting disruptive audience members out doesn’t do much since the disruption comes after the main part of the graduation is over and they have seen “their kid” do the walk.
I certainly would hesitate to have the kid punished for the behavior of audience members but something has to be done to restore decorum to what should be a solemn albiet joyful event. I can recall graduates acting up as they crossed the stage, air horns, screams and more as kids marched across. Sadly I think we as a culture are losing a sense of the sacred and the solemn.
For those who disagree, meet the kid afterwards in the lawn or parking lot and do a cheer for them but don’t disrupt the ceremony for everyone.
here=hear
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