A Mississippi superintendent who filed charges against four individuals for cheering too loudly at a high school graduation in May withdrew the complaint on Monday.
“We felt like at this point that we had accomplished our goal,” Superintendent Jay Foster told the Associated Press, “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.”
After four people cheered during Senatobia High School’s graduation ceremony on May 21, they were asked to leave. Foster had asked attendees at the beginning of the ceremony to refrain from cheering as each graduate walked across the stage. He told CNN that when he started as superintendent, the graduation ceremonies were not “conducted in a manner we were happy with.”
A few days after the May ceremony, the four individuals, including Ursula Miller and Henry Walker (pictured above), were served with arrest warrants. Foster pressed disturbing the peace charges against them by filing an affidavit with the county Justice Court.
“It’s crazy,” Henry Walker told Memphis television station WREG after he received a warrant. “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.”
Foster told the AP that he withdrew the charges on Monday after receiving some complaints.
“I’ve had a lot of negative phone calls and emails, but I’ve also had a lot of support,” he said.
Henry Walker’s mother, Linda Walker, said she was still talking to a lawyer about the charges filed against her son.
She told the AP that the withdrawn complaint “saves me some time, but it’s going to cost them some money.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,” Walker said. “We’re not done.”
