South Carolina Woman Arrested For Cheering Too Loudly at Daughter's Graduation

[rtimgray]

Dwight - Ms. Cooper is the perpetrator of the event that spawned this thread. I'm not gonna say you should or shouldn't read the subject of a story before making a comment on it, but if you did, it might make a little more sense.

I think it is a pretty big disconnect between giving a group the authority to eject someone from a public gathering and ordering their arrest. I'm not sure if you are implying that the powers that be at the school were out to get Ms. Cooper and laid this trap to spring upon her, but I really kind of doubt it. She could have side-stepped that trap by behaving like the vast majoriy of others at the event, and that would have really shown the evil school district because she was able to avoid the carefully laid pitfall.

The organizers of the event also never told anyone they couldn't cheer or applaud - they just asked them to hold their applause to a given time. It appears as though they had problems with this in the past and felt this was the best way to deal with it.

I feel where you're coming from as far as unjust or unfair rules go - but who should get to decide which rules we follow and which we ignore? I've stated how I feel this should be dealt with - i.e. through proper channels. If you go through all of that on the local level, and still have no satisfaction, take it to the district, regional or state level. If all of that fails to render satisfaction, and few people in the public offer their support (through petitioning or demonstrating or whatever), then maybe it turns out that whether you feel the rule is right or not, the majority of people do. Now where does that end - if a small group of people or an individual still feels that they know what's better for the masses than the masses themselves do? I don't pretend to know, but it will likely end badly for someone.

Hope that I have not been a contributing factor to your headache.

Good luck and take care.

 

[rtimgray]

Also - as far as the irony of AaronZ's signature line - I think that can also be viewed in perspective. Since people attending the ceremony were aware of the rule prior to the event, and had time to think about it, they could have approached the school(s) about it en masse. There are many, many ways to express opinions and not have to remain silent in regards to an issue, rather than just deciding to break a rule and hope for the best. I guess it boils down to how entitled one feels to the manner of the expression of their opinion - through calm discussion with the rule makers or ruckus-raising at an event (probably because it's too much trouble to go about expressing their opinion without disturbing others).

In this instance, Ms. Cooper had time to express her opinion in a what would have been a proper fashion (in my view) and she decided not too. Now she bears the consequences.

Good luck and take care.

 

[xtn]

My cousin grew a moustache his senior year at Valley R-6 Caledonia High School. Public school...very very small town.
The principal called him into the office and told him to shave it off, that moustaches were not allowed. My cousin said he would not. The principal said his picture would not appear in the yearbook nor would he be allowed to attend graduation. Well this turned into a pissing match between my cousins family and the principal. The family went to graduation uninvited and made a good healthy ruckus when he walked up on stage when his name "should" have been called.

**Now let's pause a moment and overlay this with the school faculty's newly granted rights to call for arrest of civilians that you all have so graciously given to them. This power hungry principal can now call for the arrest all of my cousin & my cousin's family. They are now subject to fines, court costs and possibly a misdemeanor all on the whim of this principal when the only thing criminal was my cousin's puny moustache. But they made a ruckus, and a good one and I for one was proud of them and him. I saw individuals standing up for personal freedom in the face of authority abused.**

I believe your opinion on what happened has some flaws.

I believe the kid has a right to wear a mustache if he wants. I believe he deserves a diploma if he adequately completes the curriculum set forth as required.

But I also believe the school has the right to just mail it to him. He does NOT have the right to crash and disrupt a private event that the school hosts. The mustache was not the criminal bit, crashing and disrupting a private ceremony was the criminal bit.

Now I've already stated my opinion that it's silly to ask people not to cheer at a graduation ceremony. But it is still horribly bad form not to respect the requirements of a host at his event, silly or not.

xtn

 

[jmurray01]

For God's sake, what will be next ? Incarceration for eating too many hot dogs at a BBQ ?

 

[chad22]

For God's sake, what will be next ? Incarceration for eating too many hot dogs at a BBQ ?

lol. I wouldn't doubt it. Hey mister. You ate too many hot dogs and will now be arrested. Officer? Take this man away.

Officer: What for?

For eating to many hot dogs, that's what.

Officer: Okay let's go sir? Your going away for a long, long, long time.

Chad

 

[toppop52]

Here's the deal, only police or other law enforcement could have ordered/made the arrest here, and that has never been done that I'm aware of, but after several loud mouths were removed from the ceremony a few years ago by school security in some cases and sheriff's deputies in others, the problem has largely gone away. We had one incident that made local news this year, the lady was black, the security officer was black and it's a "traditionally, predominantly black college. Believe it or not she still cried racism, as I guess it's hammered in her head from birth and it's all she knows!:confused2:

 

[EE_Bota]

**Now let's pause a moment and overlay this with the school faculty's newly granted rights to call for arrest of civilians that you all have so graciously given to them.

Anyone can call for the arrest of anyone. I did not give the school any new powers.

I was trying to give you the opportunity to graciously come back into the conversation and debate this.

Anyone can discuss in this forum. I did not give you any new powers.

 

[rtimgray]

To this thread in general, one clarification and two questions:

Clarification: Contrary to the title of the thread, and the title of many news articles written about this: The woman in question (Shannon Cooper) was not arrested for cheering; she was removed from the venue for cheering. The cause of arrest was subsequent to that. I feel that there is a distinction between the two because reports indicate that many others were removed, only a few were arrested.

The point: Shannon Cooper WAS NOT arrested for cheering. She was removed for cheering (as she was aware she would be and admitted to in an interview).

Questions: For those who feel this treatment was too authoritarian or heavy-handed, give me your answer to these questions that have already been asked:

Q 1: If cheering is okay, what if the name of your child was drowned out by cheering following the announcement of the name of the child that was called previously? Is that cheering still okay, and we all still need to just lighten up? Now no one get's to hear the name of your child - are you really okay with that? I'll go ahead and say that I would not be too happy with it, and prefer that everyone was quiet until the end. I'm curious how others feel.

Q 2: Per a question I asked previously. Let's pretend we're both attending the same ceremony and we each have a child graduating, and each graduate is supposed to get 4 chair seats. We decide we want 6, and get their early and take them. You show up with your graduate, and your seats are next to ours. So now you only have two, and we refuse to move. Do you just suck it up and go sit in the bleachers, or do you ask the officials to speak to us and see if we will move?

I have a feeling that a lot of us will tell others to lighten up and let it go, right up until it affects us.

 

[xtn]

My answer to Q2 is that I've never been to one that didn't required an invitation or ticket to get in.

 

[rtimgray]

In this make-believe exercise, attendance is open but chair seats are limited to four per graduate.

Also, the ceremony must take place during a fixed time period because it is being shared with other schools, so we can't extend the time allotted for announcing graduates.