© ShutterstockBlack woman cheers as she graduates
Superintendent Jay Foster asked audience members to hold their cheers and applause until all the graduates' names were called, but one family said they were unable to contain their excitement, reported WREG-TV.
Ursula Miller said she called out the first name of her niece, Lanarcia Walker, as she crossed the stage to receive her diploma from Senatobia High School.
The teen's father, Henry Walker, shouted, "You did it, baby," and waved a towel, drawing laughs from the crowd.
That's when school officials asked the girl's parents and two other relatives to leave the ceremony.
About a week later, they were served with court papers after the superintendent filed disturbing the peace charges against them.
"It's crazy," Henry Walker said. "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."
But the superintendent defended his decision, saying he was determined to maintain order during graduation ceremonies.
The Walkers and their relatives are due in court Monday, and they said they may not be able to afford the fines — which could put them at risk of jail time.
"I can understand they can escort me out of the graduation, but to say they going to put me in jail for it," Miller said. "What else are they allowed to do?"
Reader Comments
MS is as close 3rd world as you can get in the USA.... ignorant bigots as a whole...
Don't get me wrong, I have have a dozen people there that I hold as family/friends, but as a whole the state is "twisted"
Where is the community to come out and say "Hell No, We won't stand for this"??
Expressing joy is now a crime in 'Merica" gawd help us all!! Please stop the ride, 'cause I want OFF!!
Of all the parts to the mind control system this so-called education is the worst one of all of them. Racist? Obviously, mind control and mind destroying? Indubitably so.
The first mistake was in assuming it is education, the second is sending your child to one, and the third is in supporting the pornographic propaganda that this so.
I wonder if race was a factor in the decision to press charges?
And really, I can't imagine a judge even considering this case. Granted, they are in MS, which, as another reader commented, truly is a 3rd world country within the US border.
It's authoritarian bullies like this superintendent who assisted the rise of things like national socialism. Rules minders, bigots and maniacs, all of them.
Besides, you black people shouldn't have anything to cheer about in the first place. You know your daughter is gonna end up in a dead-end job in McDonalds or some shit like that.