Dearborn School Board Postpones Meeting Due To Raucous Crowd

DEARBORN, MI — A Monday evening Dearborn school board meeting was postponed by a fire marshal after a raucous crowd packed the auditorium and broke the fire code.

The rowdy crowd, both supporting and opposing the banning of certain book titles, were heard cheering and booing after introductory public statements were made.

A portion of the disruptive crowd even broke into a chant of "vote them out."

The situation got so loud at one point that school board member Roxanne McDonald was forced to send the meeting into recess until they could get the situation under control.

About 30 minutes later, officials announced the meeting would resume Thursday at 7 p.m. at Stout Middle School to accommodate the large crowd size and give everyone who submitted a blue card a chance to speak.

The meeting comes just after Dearborn Public Schools released the district's new criteria for how books in school libraries will be evaluated and how parents can address concerns they have about specific titles.

Under the new guidelines, the district will have its media specialists review the school's catalog to determine each title's age appropriateness. Parents can also ask a media specialist to review a certain title and block their child from gaining access to a certain book.

The meeting also comes after protesters gathered outside Henry Ford Centennial Library in September, to speak out for and against the district's decision to review seven books parents demanded be removed for the district's library.