After Surviving a Kidnapping 2 Years Ago, This Woman Just Got Her High School Diploma

Impact

Iasia Sweeting disappeared in 2010 when she was a sophomore at Dekalb School of the Arts outside Atlanta. At the time, Sweeting's loved ones weren't worried about if she would ever finish high school — they wondered if she was alive. 

According to WSB Atlanta, authorities rescued Sweeting from a Gwinnett County, Georgia, hotel in November 2014, where she was held hostage and starved. Sweeting, 21 at the time, weighed just 59 pounds. Sweeting was allegedly one of five victims kept captive by Calvin Mcintosh and his daughter Najilla, alleged cult members, who remain in prison awaiting trial.

But on Monday night, Sweeting was happy and healthy as she walked across the stage to finally receive her high school diploma to a standing ovation from her classmates.

Read more: High School Senior Walks for the Very First Time — At His Graduation Ceremony 

When WSB anchor Tony Thomas asked Sweeting if she ever doubted she would make it to graduation she said, "There were several moments, so many."

"It's a culmination of every type of emotion that you could ever feel," said Sweeting. "It's fear, it's happiness, it's anger that it didn't happen sooner, but it's appreciation that it did happen."