`Arrests mar 2 area commencements`

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer

State police made two arrests at local schools this week following unusual incidents.

A parent of a graduating student at Commodore Perry High School was arrested before commencement after an altercation with a school official, and a Lakeview alumnus was arrested after showing up at the school dressed in black trench coat, camouflage pants and painted face. Both were charged with disorderly conduct.

In the Commodore Perry incident, seniors were gathering at 7:55 p.m. Thursday in a high school classroom, said Principal Les Cattron. Ernest J. Adams, 46, of 2713 Perry Highway, Hadley, a parent of one of the graduates, came into the room with a video camera, he said. Only seniors and school staff were supposed to be in the room, so senior class adviser Melissa M. Wyllie told Adams to leave, Cattron said.

“He was taking video and was told to stop,” he said. “He shouldn’t have been where he was. She was trying to keep him out of the room.”

Adams shoved Ms. Wyllie and used profanity, offending those who were in the room, police said. Ms. Wyllie was very shaken by the incident, prompting school officials to report it to the police, Cattron said.

At graduation, school officials told a senior who showed up with multi-colored hair that he would not be allowed to participate in the ceremony because of the colors, Cattron said. School policy forbids hair color that is not close to a natural shade.

“I think he shaved his hair off,” Cattron said, and the student was allowed to participate in the ceremony.

Commodore Perry graduated a small class of 41, and the ceremony went off without incident. “The evening was great,” Cattron said. “Everything was fine.”

In Lakeview, William C. Putnam, 20, 0f 1627 Georgetown Road, Sandy Lake, showed up just before noon Friday wearing camouflage pants, a black trench coat and a clown-type hat, police said. His face painted black and gray, which are not the school colors of red and black. The student was spotted in the parking lot and never made it inside school, said school board President Donald Barbour.

Barbour said Putnam had graduated a year or two ago from Lakeview.

“When he was in school he wore a black trench coat all the time,” Barbour said. “It’s what he had to wear. Wearing it in the summer is uncalled for.”

Seniors and their parents and friends who attended Friday’s Lakeview commencement had to pass through metal detectors, but their installation had nothing to do with the Putnam arrest, Barbour said. District officials decided at the end of April to have metal detectors for the prom, baccalaureate and commencement in response to the Columbine shootings and threats and arrests made in other Mercer County schools, he said.

Commencement went off without any problems.

“Everything was calm last night and very quiet,” said Barbour, who said he thinks 94 students graduated.

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Updated June 5, 1999
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