Graduated Arrest

slacker · June 5, 2006

Irregular News for 06.05.06

Chicago, IL -- For Maquisha Cosey, vice president of Thornton Fractional North High School's class of 2006, graduation day is not one she'll soon forget.

And not for any of the sentimental reasons.

It's the day that Cosey, who was listed on Friday's graduation program as the leader of the pledge to the flag, was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct after trying to participate in the ceremony despite being denied entry for being late.

"I know that this shouldn't have happened to me. It shouldn't happen to anyone," says the graduate.

Instead of celebrating her big day, she spent the evening at the Calumet City police station being fingerprinted and photographed because Principal Dwayne E. Evans, the Cosey family claims, was angry someone had let her into the ceremony after the doors were locked.

It was also her 18th birthday.

"I don't have all the facts yet," District 215 Supt. Robert Wilhite said Saturday. "I have a meeting scheduled for Monday morning with the staff of Thornton North to sort this all out."

Wilhite says he was told Cosey was arrested for "screaming and yelling in the gymnasium long after the graduation was all over." Court papers, with the principal listed as the complainant, allege she "knowingly and intentionally acted in an unreasonable manner and provoke[d] a breach of the peace by continually yelling and screaming and threatening the school staff during the graduation proceedings."

But Cosey, a member of student government who says she never had a discipline issue in four years of high school, denies that, saying, "That's just not my character."

Evans could not be reached for comment.

It all started when Cosey arrived at the high school in Calumet City two minutes before doors were scheduled to be locked. Invitations had clearly stated no one would be allowed in to the 6 p.m. ceremony after 5:55 p.m., and students had been instructed to arrive at 5 p.m.

That Cosey was late, she and her parents aren't disputing.

'I started crying and begging'

When Cosey came running to the door, a member of the faculty told her she could not come in and then locked the doors.

"I started crying and begging, and knocking on the door. My parents were begging them, too," Cosey said. But Assistant Principal Ray Williams told Cosey, her mother Roberta Cosey and stepfather Patrick Hill they'd have to go to the overflow room where everyone who arrived after 5:55 p.m. was sent, the Coseys said.

"We all were very upset. We understood about us, but we kept saying, 'At least they could have let her in,'" said Roberta Cosey. "My daughter was so hurt. I felt her pain. Walking across the stage is a one-time opportunity. You can't get that back."

Cosey said as her parents tried to reason with Calumet City police stationed outside entrances, she walked around the building and peered through windows at the ceremony.

When it was almost over, a parent inside saw her pressed against a window in cap and gown and motioned her to a back door, where the parent and a police officer let her in and told her to take her reserved seat, even though she'd missed participating, Cosey said.

When faculty saw her in the gym, the dean of discipline, David Shrader, tapped her on the shoulder and said she would be dealt with afterward, Cosey said.

And as students filed out, Cosey, who is heading to Baker College in Muskegon, Mich., to study physical therapy, was corralled by police. She says Evans then asserted he wanted to press charges.

Cosey was hauled off in a police car, her parents unaware until told by her friends and other parents.

"At the station, they fingerprinted me and took a picture of me and everything," Cosey says, tears flowing. "Then I heard my principal's voice. ... He said it wouldn't have killed her to miss her graduation. But it wasn't his graduation. He can't tell me what it meant to me to not be part of it."

She posted $100 bond and has a July 17 court date -- the day she's due in Muskegon for orientation.

source

AR Husker Fan · June 5, 2006

In the law, we refer to this as "Black Robe Fever" - the condition whereby a lawyer who is elected or appointed to a judgeship abuses his or her power simply because they can.

That principal is a prime example...

hoyamannn · June 5, 2006

I would have to call it "douch-bag fever" myself.

THROW_DA_BONES · June 6, 2006

wow

BIGREDIOWAN · June 6, 2006

Yeah if I was her and found out that I was going to go to jail I would make sure it was for a good reason......................like kicking the principles balls through his taint!!! :wtf :smokin