CINCINNATI — An Archbishop Moeller High School senior was barred from walking across the stage at his graduation ceremony after allegedly cheering too loudly at another school's graduation event earlier the same day.
The ceremony was captured on video, showing the moment that ultimately prevented Nicco Ryan from participating in his graduation ceremony, but according to attendees, Ryan wasn't disruptive at all.
"To get a phone call while you're standing in line to walk into your son's graduation, that he's most likely not going to walk, I just burst into tears," said Nicole Taylor, Ryan's mother.
The Norwood High School graduation ceremony video shows an auditorium filled with loud cheers as graduates receive their diplomas.
See the moment where Ryan allegedly cheered too loudly in the video below:
"To transfer to one of the best schools in the city and have a 4.0 in the fourth quarter, and still, skyrocket at the top. It just felt amazing to think that I was gonna walk across that stage, and it was all just gone in a moment," Ryan said.
Ryan said he was "just in the crowd cheering with everyone else."
Ryan and his mother say Norwood school officials contacted Moeller, and administrators made the decision to prevent him from walking during his graduation ceremony scheduled for later that day. He and his mother also said there was no consideration for an alternative punishment.
"I didn't feel like I did anything wrong — I was so, like confused, just trying to think of everything that I did (that day)," Ryan said.
I reached out to both schools to learn about their policies regarding graduation ceremonies. Moeller responded, saying the district does not bring the press in on internal matters involving students. Norwood High School did not respond to the request for comment.
"I was upset it was just... I don't even know what to think, it was like it wasn't real, that something so silly caused him to not be able to walk with his classmates," Taylor said.
Ryan is the oldest of Taylor's eight children. She says she had been waiting 18 years for this special moment.
"I was pregnant with him when I graduated high school, so it was a big thing for him to graduate," Taylor said.
Amid uncertainty about why he couldn't participate in the ceremony, Ryan received his diploma in an envelope two days later.
"Being able to actually just hold the book now and being able to see, oh, I actually did it — I don't need to walk across the stage to show for it," Ryan said.
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