Mom Arrested for Cheering at Graduation

Family says others were cheering, too
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2012 5:20 PM CDT

Shannon Cooper knew cheering was supposedly forbidden at South Florence High School's graduation ceremony, but when the time came, the South Carolina mom couldn't contain herself. "I got up and I said, 'Yay, my baby made it, yes!'" she tells WPDE 15. "Just a regular cheer." Police disagreed. Cooper was escorted out of the civic center in handcuffs, taken to the Florence County Detention Center, and charged with disorderly conduct.

When daughter Iesha left the center, she saw her mom in the back of a police van and broke into tears. "I was like, that isn't right, because other people was cheering, and they didn't lock them up," Iesha says. Cooper spent several hours in jail before paying a $225 fine. Police say they only arrested people who were "disorderly" when ejected, but Cooper insists she didn't resist them. "I'll go nicely because I'm gonna cheer," she recalled thinking at the time. "It was hard work." (More weird crimes stories.)

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