Four people were charged with disturbing the peace after cheering too loudly at a high school graduation ceremony in Senatobia, Miss., Memphis television station WREG reported on Tuesday.
Police at Northwest Mississippi Community College, where the ceremony was held, told WREG that Senatobia Municipal School District Superintendent Jay Foster, told attendees at the ceremony to refrain from cheering and applause until the end of the ceremony.
Four people, including Ursula Miller and Henry Walker (pictured above), both of whom are black, were asked to leave the ceremony after cheering on the graduates.
When Lanarcia Walker graduated, Miller yelled out her niece’s name.
“When she went across the stage I just called her name out. ‘Lakaydra’. Just like that,” Miller told WREG.
And Walker cheered and waved a towel as Lanarcia graduated, according to Lanarcia’s mother, Linda Walker.
“He said ‘you did it baby’, waved his towel and went out the door,” she said.
A few days after the ceremony, those asked to leave for cheering were served with arrest warrants.
Foster (pictured on the right), who is white, pressed disturbing the peace charges against the attendees by filing an affidavit with the county Justice Court, which issued arrest warrants, the police and court clerk told TPM.
“Why assign papers on someone? We don’t have money for anything like that,” Linda Walker said about the arrest warrants.
The four individuals charged are expected to appear in court on June 9, according to WREG.
“It’s crazy,” Henry Walker told the station. “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.”
