BATON ROUGE – YouTube flagged the video stream of a controversial East Baton Rouge Parish School Board meeting, making it unwatchable on the social media website Friday.

The board meeting from Thursday, May 19, 2022, was banned from viewers.  The meeting focused on a contentious discussion over Superintendent Sito Narcisse’s decision to require teachers switch schools in an effort to deal with staffing shortages next school year.

Before the meeting, parents held a “Release Narcisse” rally, lobbying the board to fire the superintendent.

“Narcisse decided, apparently without a vote from the board, basically to give them an eviction notice, which bullied them into either moving into this new position without discussion, without conversation, abandoning relationships and programs that they developed or they didn't have a job,” parent and former East Baton Rouge student Natalie Overall said at the rally.

Narcisse told the board, it is his job to make sure vacancies are filled and board members and parents should trust his judgment: “As a superintendent, that is what this board has entrusted me on, and I look forward to continuing that work,” he said. 

The meeting was blocked from YouTube because of “Spam, deceptive practices and scams.”  The school district said it was attempting to get the internet giant to restore access “soon,” according to a school system spokesperson.

An EBR Schools spokesperson said: "For some reason, YouTube flagged the stream as 'Spam, deceptive practices and scams.' We are working to see if we can appeal this and have the video restored soon."

The video appeared to have been restored sometime Friday afternoon. 

Read the YouTube policy here.