Florence, SC (WPDE) - A South Carolina mother overjoyed that her daughter made it through high school ended up in handcuffs.
Shannon Cooper was arrested for cheering too loudly during the graduation.
"I got up and I said 'yay my baby made it. Yes!' just a regular cheer," Cooper says.
Police charged her with disorderly conduct at her daughter Iesha's graduation this past weekend at the Florence Civic Center.
Parents were warned not to cheer for the graduates or they would be thrown out. W hen Iesha walked across the stage to get her diploma, shannon did it anyway.
"don't scream, don't cheer," she says. "No, I'm thinking in my mind. No, I'mma cheer because, you know, I went through too much to get her to this point. I can't show my excitement? I can't cheer? I can't applaud her letting her know yes, I'm so proud of you, like all the other years when people graduate. How can I not cheer for my child?"
Shannon says the officers took her to a police van outside the civic center and she sat there for 45 minutes. Iesha came outside and saw her mother inside that van.
"That's all I can picture, me crying, looking at the police van knowing my momma in there," Iesha says.
"I couldn't talk to her or nothing. Nothing at all. Just look from in the van in handcuffs for cheering."
Shannon says she stayed in jail for several hours before paying $225 to get out.
She and her daughter say graduation day is a bad memory.