SAN ANTONIO -- A Warren High School senior was not allowed to walk across the stage to receive her high school diploma recently because she violated Northside Independent School District policy when she waved and pumped her fists in the air at the crowd.

"I was just walking and I looked up and I (waved)," she said. "And I just felt a tap on my shoulder."

The tap was Medina's cue to leave Saturday's ceremony at the Alamodome.

"I'll never forget her face," said Michelle Medina, Samantha's mother, about her daughter's reaction to being asked to leave. "It hurts that she didn't get to walk that stage. They took that away from us."

Samantha said she pumped her hands in the air because she was proud of herself. She had been in danger of not graduating after she failed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge, or TAKS test, three times. The test is a requirement by the Texas Education Agency for graduation from high school.

According to Northside ISD policy, students must keep their hands by their side at all times and not bring them above waist level until they receive their diploma.

The school district handbook also states that "students who raise their hands above their waists for any reasons other than receiving the diplomas or shaking hands may be removed from the graduation ceremony."

"She was twirling in the line," said Northside ISD spokesman Pascual Gonzalez. "She was waving. She was not acting like she was instructed to."

Gonzalez said that Samantha will eventually receive her diploma.

But her mother said that she is "determined to do something about this."