ROCK HILL, S.C. - Authorities say seven people attending high school graduations in Rock Hill, South Carolina, are facing charges after police say they cheered while students' names were being called.WHAT?
. . . Police say those arrested yelled after students' names were called while diplomas were handed out.
. . . A police spokesman says school officials request police patrols to prevent graduation disruptions that include standing, hollering and clapping. He says those attending the commencements are told their behaviour can be prosecuted.
I don't know what these people are thinking, but they sound like killjoys who think commencement exercises are only solemn parades to the gravitas-laden strains of "Pomp and Circumstance."
Frankly, if happy parents, friends, and relatives (and, oh, especially happy parents) want to cheer when their loved one's name is called at graduation, then let them cheer. The students -- have only this one tiny moment to shine in public. They'll never be in that spot again. Let them have it. Let them celebrate! A moment of high spirits isn't a CRIME -- or it shouldn't be.
Idiots. *snort of derision and contempt* Oh, and I don't at all buy the argument that somehow a little joyful, spontaneous applause and cheering is lethally disruptive or dangerous. Graduations are supposed to be happy occasions, remember?
Look, cheering isn't disorderly conduct in my book. Of course, some types of behavior are inappropriate for graduation -- such as this (it's also inappropriate for acceptable public behavior in any setting at all, though arresting the guy might not be the best response either).
1 comment:
But then it doesn't sound like you have had graduation duty when at least one of two things always occurs in the stands during the ceremony. A parent or rather a herd of parents are suddenly surprised to realize that Johnny or Joanna, in spite of the Prom, the Vespers, the robe and mortarboard and the limo in the parking lot are not going to graduate because they have either been suspended, dropped out or simply didn't pass one of the basic academic qualifiers to get that diploma. For some reason the parents begin yelling and at least once pulled out a gun and threatened the stupid teacher trying to calm them down, me, and the principal who acted just as stupidly in trying to defuse the situation.
Now the other possibility is the graduation ceremony at a school that sits astride the territory of two different gangs, in this case the worst possible situation as one was black and the other Latino, who decide that they are bored watching some AP student return to the podium for another award and begin yelling gang slogans and flashing signs at each other.
Gagging would be one option as far as I'm concerned, having the ceremony at an undisclosed location two hundred miles away or simply mailing the graduation certificate to Will Call also would be pleasing. They were only arrested and I was hoping for at least tasering them all!
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