Supporters at a high school graduation who cheered when their loved ones’ names were called won’t be charged after all, after a Mississippi school superintendent announced Monday that the school district would withdraw its complaints, Fox News reports.
"I've had a lot of negative phone calls and emails, but I've also had a lot of support," Senatobia, Miss., school Superintendent Jay Foster said.
For Foster, the cheering and screaming at graduations had become too disruptive, making the ceremony tedious and difficult. And so an evidently fed-up Foster contacted police, who issued warrants for disturbing the peace against four people Foster said were being rowdy at a ceremony in late May.
"I think it's important to remember that this is a celebration of our community, and the majority of our community wants a ceremony where people are respectful of others and there's some dignity there," the superintendent said, according to the news site.
However, one of the relatives cheering at the ceremony that day said it was Foster, more than audience members, who was making a disturbance.
"When [Foster] got on the P.A. system, he made more of a disturbance than I did," said Ursula Miller, who was one of those escorted from the graduation and later targeted with a warrant. "Every name was called. Each and every parent heard their child's name called. It wasn't no big disturbance. He's the one that caused the disturbance."
The mother of Henry Walker, another one of the four people given a warrant because he shouted his little sister's name during her graduation, is not satisfied, however. The furious mother declared that dropping the complaint "saves me more time, but it's going to cost them some money. I'm not done with him. He done got my baby's name all over the world."
As for Foster, he still thinks that the warrants were a good idea and hopes that the threat will deter future noisemakers.
"We felt like at this point that we had accomplished our goal, which was, if you disrupt the ceremony, not only could you be escorted out, but you could face possible charges. It's really nothing more than a ticket, but it could cost you," Foster said of the charges, which carry a $500 fine and up to six months in jail.
Read more at Fox News.