Former board official booked

• By KORAN ADDO
• Advocate Westside bureau
• Published: Jun 10, 2009 - Page: 1B

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PLAQUEMINE — A former Iberville Parish School Board member was forcibly restrained and arrested Monday night in the School Board office after a scuffle with Plaquemine police.

Janice Anderson, an Iberville School Board member in the 1980s and 1990s, was booked on counts of resisting an officer, simple damage to property and remaining after forbidden — all misdemeanors.

Anderson was with a group from Rosedale, Maringouin and Grosse Tete protesting the board’s April 21 vote to close North Iberville High and send its 150 students in the seventh through 12th grade to Plaquemine High in the fall.

A video of the arrest shows Anderson, 52, of Maringouin, removing a picture of herself from a wall in a School Board office hallway about an hour after the 6 p.m. meeting.

In the video, Anderson took the picture into a room out of the camera’s view and remained there for several minutes.

When she re-entered the camera’s view, Anderson is seen in the hallway talking to Plaquemine Police Detective Chad Fonseca.

After a few seconds facing each other, Fonseca motioned for Anderson to walk toward an exit. Anderson turned toward the exit but did not immediately leave the building. Seconds later, Fonseca grabbed Anderson’s arm.

With Anderson facing the exit and Fonseca holding her arm, Anderson turned toward the officer, who then spun Anderson around and pushed her against a wall.

They tussled for several seconds, moving from one side of the hallway to the other, as Fonseca tried to handcuff Anderson.

Moments later, two other officers ran into the hallway from outside and the three officers subdued Anderson and handcuffed her.

After the arrest, Anderson said late Monday she was taken to the Plaquemine Police Department and booked.

Outside of the Police Department, several members of North Iberville Concerned Citizens, a group opposing the closure of North Iberville High, stood outside demanding Anderson’s release.

When Anderson was released from police custody at 8:45 p.m., a crowd gathered around her as she explained her side of the incident.