DEARBORN, Mich. – A fire marshal has ended a Dearborn school board meeting early due to the crowd becoming disorderly.
The meeting was live-streamed on Monday evening, and those in attendance were often told to keep quiet as loud cheers and murmurs were heard during public comments.
The situation got so rowdy that school board member Roxanne McDonald announced that the meeting would be heading to recess until they could get the situation under control.
About half an hour later, the screen popped up with a message saying, “The board meeting will continue on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Fordson High School. It will be a continuation of today’s (Oct. 10) meeting. Those who submitted blue cards will have the opportunity to speak.”
The location for the meeting on Thursday has since changed.
More: Dearborn school board meeting to resume Thursday after ‘unruly’ crowd cut first meeting short
In line with growing scrutiny across the U.S. over school library books and their appropriateness, Dearborn Public Schools has developed a committee that will review existing and potential literary additions that are of concern to parents.
Parents of children at Dearborn schools can now request the district to review a book, or books, that they’re concerned about to see if they should be removed from the shelves. Shortly after the district formed its Book Reconsideration Committee, a parent brought six books to the district’s attention, requesting they be reevaluated.
Those six books include:
- “Push” by Sapphire;
- “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold;
- “Eleanor and Park” by Rainbow Rowell;
- “Red, White and Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston;
- “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson; and
- “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson.
The novels in question range greatly in topics, but romance and sexual identity are common themes in most of them. Some of these books have been questioned already at other schools, as the effort to ban and restrict books in the U.S. surges this year.
Read more: These are the 6 library books being reviewed by Dearborn Public Schools
