Tagged: schools

Iberville Parish school system Central Office employees can no longer work "skeleton shifts" during holiday breaks. Superintendent Ed Cancienne told The Advocate Monday a recent Louisiana Attorney General's Office opinion said the longtime tradition violates state law. Cancienne said some 12-month employees in the district's Central Office received additional paid time off on designated work days during holiday breaks — like Thanksgiving and Christmas — through the use of minimally staffed shifts. School Board member Darlene Ourso asked for

East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies have arrested a Baton Rouge woman accused of making threatening remarks, including referencing the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., to fifth-graders and a teacher after her child was bullied.

While she was checking her child into Magnolia Woods Elementary School Tuesday, sheriff's spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks says Donna Wilson learned that her child was a victim of bullying on Monday.

Hicks says school officials told Wilson that they handled the incident and had counseled students about teasing the child.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is forming a 13-member study group to review safety standards at Louisiana schools and colleges, in the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.

Jindal issued an executive order Friday creating the group, which will be led by Col. Mike Edmonson, head of the Louisiana State Police, and Jimmy LeBlanc, secretary of the corrections department.

The governor is asking the group to assess current safety programs at public and private schools from prekindergarten through 12th grade and at colleges and universities around the state.

In the wake of the Newtown massacre, where are the school groups lobbying for new gun control laws? At best, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association are defensively protecting schools, as if they are forts, from the encroachment of gun lobbyists and activists who want more guns in schools. Educators know that firearm-free zones, while not perfect, create the best learning environments. Schools and colleges can teach gun advocates that taking a stand doesn’t require a gun.