Black Family Threatened With Jail For Cheering At Miss. HS Graduation
50 years ago it was a hanging offense just to attend
Family members who attended a high school graduation in Senatobia, Mississippi were recently served arrest warrants with a $500 bond, charged with “disturbing the peace,” for cheering at a high school graduation weeks earlier.
WREG News Channel 3 reports that superintendent Jay Foster asked the crowd “not to scream and to hold their applause…” WREG video shows one family member shouting, “You did it, baby!” followed by chuckling in the audience. For this, and other perceived infractions including calling out the name of a family member, four people were escorted out of the graduation ceremony. “A week or two later,” according to one woman, police officers issued warrants to them for “disturbing the peace.”
According to reporter Michael Quander, Superintendent Foster wouldn’t appear on camera but called the charges “far from ridiculous…” Quander quoted Foster,
“he’s determined to have order at these ceremonies, and what he calls ‘negative attention,’ won’t be tolerated.”
Family members said they were “expressing my love” and wanted to “show support” and they “shouldn’t be forced to go to court.” Family member Linda Walker said of the $500 bond, “We don’t have money for anything like that.”
According to the June 2nd report, all four people charged are expected in court early next week.
This is a pretty clear-cut overreaction. There may be an issue of decorum, but it hardly sounds like the shouting was sustained. The idea that four people can be charged for a little hollering at a graduation ceremony is preposterous. The Superintendent may technically be within his rights to ask to have the people removed, but even that seems like flexing power for its own sake. But shouting “You did it!” should be categorically protected by the First Amendment, even if the cheering is unwelcome by a minor authority figure.
This is not the first time in this year’s graduation season that an overzealous administrator has marred a graduation for black attendees in the Deep South. In early May, principal Nancy Gordeuk at charter school TNT Academy in Stone Mountain, Georgia mistakenly ended a graduation ceremony before the valedictorian’s speech. Her attempt to get the audience to return created chaos. She shouted at the audience into the microphone, “Ya’ll are the rudest people I’ve ever seen in my life!” and blamed “ all the black people” for leaving. Gordeuk was later fired for her racist tirade.
Welcome to post-racial America, where the full weight of the Justice system is wielded against black people for cheering their loved ones. |
