You can read an update to this story here.
Shannon Cooper cheered as her daughter walked across the stage to get her diploma from South Florence High School Saturday night, but just minutes later, Shannon was handcuffed and arrested.
"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. 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," said Shannon.
Florence police charged Shannon with disorderly conduct.
She said officers walked her across the Florence Civic Center, where the graduation ceremony was being held, in full view of everyone, including her daughter, Iesha Cooper, 18.
"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," explained Shannon.
Her daughter, Iesha, said she didn't really know what was going on until friends told her her mother was being arrested.
"They're locking your momma up for cheering - and I was like that isn't right because other people was cheering and they didn't lock them up," said Iesha.
Police said it was announced before the ceremony that anyone who cheered or screamed would be escorted out of the building.
Florence police wouldn't speak to us about individual cases, but said the people who got disorderly when they were escorted out of the civic center were arrested.
"Disorderly conduct? What's the disorderly conduct? How was I so disorderly you know any different from just a happy parent? I didn't resist arrest, nothing," Shannon responded.
She said she waited in a police van parked outside the civic center for about 45 minutes until officers took her to the Florence County Detention Center. She said her daughter came outside and just broke down crying after seeing her mother in a police van on her graduation day.
"I couldn't talk to her or nothing. Nothing at all. Just look from in the van in handcuffs for cheering," said Shannon.
"That's all I can picture, me crying, looking at the police van knowing my mother is in there," said Iesha.
Shannon was booked at the detention center and stayed there for several hours until posting a $225 bond.
She said her graduation plans for her daughter had to be postponed, and what should have been one of the happiest days in her life was one of the worst.
"Yesterday can't be replaced. I'm gonna remember. She gonna remember for the rest of her life. My mama went to jail on my graduation day," said Iesha.
Mother and daughter did celebrate the graduation on Sunday afternoon with a family barbeque and cake.
What are your thoughts? Should Shannon Cooper have been arrested?
