A woman was handcuffed and another woman was escorted out of a Tennessee high school’s graduation after a fight broke out Tuesday night.
Arlington High School graduation attendees captured the fight on video as students made their way into the sanctuary at Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova, Tennessee, for their graduation. The ceremony began around 7 p.m.
The video shows two women throwing punches at multiple people. A woman in a brown dress hits a man, then shoves a young woman. One of the women begins pulling another woman’s hair.
People on social media said the fight started over a request to switch seats.
A third video shows two women in the lobby of the church with security and men who identify themselves in the video as law enforcement.
One woman is handcuffed and sitting on the floor. Another woman, who was also involved in the fight, tells the officers that she’s not leaving the woman with them. It is not clear if the handcuffed woman was charged.
Jeffrey Mayo, the chief of staff for the school district, released the following statement:
"Last night we celebrated 500 students who graduated from Arlington High School. This year's class earned over $30,600,000 in college scholarships.
"It was unfortunate that a couple of adults in the audience exhibited the behavior they did prior to the ceremony beginning and thus has caused a distraction from the celebration of our students' accomplishments. The graduation ceremony was not affected by this incident due to the actions of Bellevue's security team, who promptly removed the adults from the ceremony.
"It is our hope that the focus will shift to our students and their accomplishments instead of the poor decisions by adults in attendance. Congratulations to our 2017 graduates of Arlington High School."
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