Those at the Calcasieu Parish School Board will continue to prioritize student safety at district schools, said Dr. Shannon LaFargue, CPSB Superintendent.

“The safety and security of students, faculty and staff will always be the top priority for us within the Calcasieu Parish School Board,” he said.

This statement follows a string of safety threats made by students in the Calcasieu Parish school district. Since Friday, March 31, three students from three schools in the district have been arrested and booked into the Juvenile Detention Center and charged with terrorizing.

On Friday afternoon, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s officers were dispatched to Sam Houston High School after they were given notice of a student making threats. After investigation, they determined that a 14-year-old male student said he was going to “blow up the school,” according to CPSO.

On Tuesday, April 4, CPSO deputies responded to two reports of threats made by students at parish schools. The first of these was a threat made by a 13-year-old male student at Moss Bluff Middle School stating that he would “shoot up the school,” and the second was a threat made by a 12-year-old male student at S.J. Welsh Middle school, who “made a comment about bringing a gun to school and shooting someone.”

Threats of this manner are not taken lightly by local law enforcement. “We have a zero tolerance when it comes to threatening harm to other students along with the faculty at our schools in Calcasieu Parish,” stated CPSO Sheriff Tony Mancuso. “Every threat will be investigated and arrests will be made when warranted. We work closely with the Calcasieu Parish School Board to ensure the safety of our children is always our top priority.”

During these investigations, the school board has assisted CPSO, but LaFargue said the two organizations do conduct separate investigations.

“While we do have strong relationships with our law enforcement partners, our investigations are separate and the consequences may vary in severity. We have several extensive layers of assessing the magnitude of each threat,” he stated.

CPSB threat assessments take several factors into account during investigations, such as a student’s behavioral history, family support or recent life changes, LaFargue said. “This assessment is valuable in creating an identified tier in which the student and their actions will be labeled.”

Through CPSB’s process, they are able to provide support services for the student and the family, if warranted, in addition to addressing the event and administering appropriate consequences.

CPSB is not allowed to release details regarding the threats or the students due to the sensitive nature of the cases. LaFargue expressed his appreciation for the community’s understanding of this. “The success of a child’s educational journey and life journey will always be a joint endeavor between us, families, and the community, these types of situations included. We are grateful for the patience and understanding of our families through these incidents, trusting us to ensure that safety will always remain a top priority.”

LaFargue attributes the increase in threatening behavior in schools to the recent violent events at schools around the country, such as the recent shooting in Nashville, Tennessee. “Flashpoint events throughout the country create a contagion effect in various forms, such as an increase in threatening behavior towards our schools.”

He also believes that social media is a major factor, which is a variable that parents affect. “We are asking parents and community members to come alongside us in this by closely monitoring students’ social media activity, having conversations about threatening behavior, and making them aware of the potential consequences of these actions.”

Mancuso agrees that safety awareness starts at home.“I encourage parents to take the time to talk to their children and explain the seriousness of making these threats. This is no joking matter and students need to know they will be arrested if they make threats toward a school.”

School security is a priority statewide. On April 6, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education endorsed resolutions aiming to strengthen security in K-12 public schools “in response to an increasing nationwide trend to shootings and other acts of violence in school facilities.”

These resolutions request that every school in the Louisiana public school system partner with their local law enforcement to ensure school resource officers are on their campuses.

“Our first responsibility as education leaders should be to provide a safe and secure environment in which students are free from the threat of violence,” said Michael Melerine, District 4 BESE board member. “Increasing the security of public school facilities by placing trained resource officers in every school is an important part of the solution to school safety concerns, and a necessary move towards protecting our children and educators.”