Mom arrested for cheering at her daughter’s high school graduation

You may be beaming with pride as your child walks across the stage to pick up that hard-earned diploma. But you'd better not do that beaming out loud, especially if you're at certain ceremonies in the United States.

A proud South Carolina mother was handcuffed and arrested for cheering at her daughter's high school graduation ceremony last weekend, reports a local news station, WPDE.

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"Humiliation. I don't even think humiliation could describe how I felt," says Shannon Cooper of the arrest. She says it was only natural to celebrate the moment of her daughter, Iesha's graduation from South Florence High School.

"I'm gonna cheer," she says. "It was hard work. I went through so much to get her to this point you know."

Watch the WPDE news video below where Shannon Cooper and her daughter discuss the incident:

But the high-spirits took a dive as she was escorted to a police van parked outside, and held there for 45 minutes. Police then brought her to a detention centre and kept her there for hours until she posted a bond of over 200 dollars.

She was charged with disorderly conduct, which put a damper on her daughter's big day.

"She's going to remember for the rest of her life, 'My mama went to jail on my graduation day,'" Cooper says.

Some celebratory outbursts at this type of ceremony aren't necessarily a bad thing, says University of Waterloo's registrar, Ken Lavigne. He's been involved in organizing that university's convocation ceremonies for the past 36 years.

"It's not unusual for an enthusiastic relative to cheer enthusiastically when their particular grad crosses the stage," he says. "Sometimes it can be humourous."

He says some cheering adds to the high-spirits of the ceremony. The only problem is if the next student's moment is lost in the cheer.

"It can be disruptive in that the next graduate being announced, the audience might not hear her name. And that's unfortunate."

It's also disrespectful if people leave after their graduate's turn.

"We ask out of courtesy that everyone stay for the whole ceremony, so it doesn't melt down after Johnny crosses the stage," says Lavigne.

But has their ever been a need for the police to be involved?

"Certainly not," says Lavigne.

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This South Carolina case isn't the only crackdown on graduation enthusiasm in the United States.

ABC News reports that a graduating student's diploma was withheld by administration at a high school in Ohio, because the graduate's friends and family were overly boisterous during the ceremony. The student was told he'd have to do hours of community service before it would be returned.

And 10 members of a Tennessee high-school graduating class had their diplomas confiscated because they decorated their graduation caps.