BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. – Hundreds of parents and students came together Friday night to show support for a school board president who was ousted due to a mask controversy.
The decision to remove the president from his position Thursday was the latest move in what has been a tumultuous time for the Bloomfield Hills School District
Parents and students showed up at Friday’s Bloomfield Hills High School football game with shirts and signs in support of former board president Paul Kolin.
“It’s amazing that in the era where we tell our students if they see something, say something -- we have done the opposite,” Kolin said at Thursday’s school board meeting.
Kolin’s fellow board members are angry over a list a parent made of families and students believed to be anti-mask. The list began circulating online and the families on the list considering it bullying and a “burn list.”
Kolin said someone on the list asked him to intervene and he alerted the superintendent and the police.
“We had to hear about it from frantic community members who were being investigated by police,” said Bloomfield Hill School Board member Siva Kumar.
Kolin said he did what he should have done. The board disagreed and removed him of his position.
Hundreds of parents and students turned out Friday night to show that they stand with the former president.
“I feel like people should understand that the board doesn’t need a justification to remove him as board president, but they would have needed justification to censure him and they chose not to do that,” said parent Sophia Roslin. “I think they did not have sufficient evidence to do that.”
Related: Tracking Michigan school districts, colleges requiring masks for 2021-2022 school year
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