Mom Locked Up For Cheering Too Loudly at High School Graduation

Jun 06, 2012

A South Carolina mom was arrested on Saturday for cheering at her daughter’s high school graduation. Shannon Cooper got up and yelled "yay, my baby made it" when she saw her daughter walk across the stage Saturday night, but just moments later, she was handcuffed, escorted out through the auditorium in front of her daughter and jailed for several hours. "Are ya’ll serious? Are ya’ll for real? I mean, that’s what I’m thinking in my mind. I didn’t say anything. I was just like OK, I can’t fight the law," [Cooper told WPDE](http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=761693#.T89mUz5YuyQ). "I can’t argue with the police, but I’m like are you serious? I didn’t do any more than the others did. Which I feel like no one should have went to jail." "Humiliation. I don’t even think humiliation could describe how I felt. You know, because I feel from just my feelings and then looking at my daughter how she felt, I could take you know you know if I did something ,but like I said, yes they said you’ll be escorted out no problem. I’ll be escorted out. I’ll go nicely because I’m gonna cheer. It was hard work. I went through so much to get her to this point you know," Cooper went on to explain. Her daughter, Iesha, said she didn’t really know what was going on until friends told her her mother was being arrested. When the new high school graduate stepped outside and saw her mother waiting in a police vehicle she broke down. "I couldn’t talk to her or nothing. Nothing at all. Just look from in the van in handcuffs for cheering," Cooper said. The high school grad says her high school graduation memories have been tainted. "That’s all I can picture, me crying, looking at the police van knowing my mother is in there," said Iesha Cooper. Cooper was booked at the detention center and stayed there for several hours until posting a $225 bond. Cooper maintains she didn’t cheer any more than others in the audience.