School closure protested

• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate Westside bureau
• Published: Jun 9, 2009 - Page: 1B

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PLAQUEMINE — The Rev. Al Sharpton didn’t show up as planned, but residents concerned about the planned closure of North Iberville High School still managed to cause an uproar at Monday’s School Board meeting under the threat of being arrested.

With Sharpton a no-show, Iberville Parish School Board President Melvin Lodge tried to move on to other business.

Lodge’s voice was drowned out by protesters and School Board member Dorothy Sansoni, who asked that Byron Clay, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, be allowed to speak in Sharpton’s place.

When Lodge refused Sansoni’s request, members of the SCLC and North Iberville Concerned Citizens began singing hymns.

With the singing disrupting the 6 p.m. meeting, Plaquemine police ordered the dozens of people in attendance to leave the board room.

Most people left. However, Clay and a few others stayed in the room, kneeling on the floor praying as School Board members looked on in silence.

Plaquemine police threatened to arrest the group several times, but then allowed the group to pray for several minutes before they left.

The two groups, including residents of Maringouin, Rosedale and Grosse Tete, oppose the closing of the North Iberville High School.

They have argued that Plaquemine High — 40 miles away from the North Iberville area — has been near failing academically for several years.

Plaquemine High is where School Superintendent Ed Cancienne has recommended that 150 students in the seventh through 12th grades at North Iberville High go in the fall.

Sharpton, a civil-rights activist from New York, was scheduled to speak at the 6 p.m. School Board meeting in protest of the School Board’s 8-7 vote April 21 to close North Iberville High.

As he left the meeting, SCLC Treasurer Spiver Gordon turned to School Board members and promised to keep pressure on the School Board until the school closure decision is reversed.

“Our business, or no business,” he said.