Northwest Mississippi Community College (NMCC) recently hosted a high school graduation where attendees were controversially arrested, but the school is distancing itself from the incident.
Senatobia School District Superintendent Jay Foster is pressing charges against three people for what he called cheering out of turn at a May 21 high school graduation ceremony, USA Today reported. Authorities have issued arrest warrants for disturbing the peace.
According to the Clarion-Ledger, four people were asked to leave at the time of the cheering, but Foster is pressing charges against three after he learned their names.
With that incident gaining national attention, NMCC wanted to reiterate their only role was as the event's venue. In a statement released Thursday, the school said their administrators and police officers were not involved and did not even know Foster intended to press criminal charges.
As a result of the incident, NMCC said it "will be conducting a review of its hosting of high school graduations."
"Northwest Campus Police had no involvement in issuing or serving these warrants," read the school's statement.
Like many graduation ceremonies - both high school and college - attendees were asked to hold their applause for the end of the diploma presentations. The reasoning is applause and cheering after each student's name is called can obstruct other families from hearing their student's name.
Foster told the Ledger this policy was abundantly clear for the May 21 ceremony and he even contended such behavior bothered some of the students as they walked the stage. He told the newspaper he saw one student look visibly upset when cheering erupted.
"The look on her face when she was coming across the stage just reminded me, this is about the kids," he said. "So many things these days, if I had to sum it up in a few words, it's all about me. But this is not. This is about the graduates."
