EBBB, School and Student Safety

The Lafayette Parish School Board is committed to providing a safe environment for the students, employees, and guests in its schools and at its activities. Toward that end, the School Board shall comply with the Louisiana School and Student Safety Act (La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§17:409.1-17:410) and shall take immediate action to address potential threats of violence or terrorism to persons in its facilities.

The Superintendent shall develop, in consultation with local law enforcement agencies, age appropriate information regarding internet and cell phone safety and online content that is a potential threat to school safety. The information shall include how to recognize and report potential threats to school safety posted on the internet, including but not limited to social media posts. This information shall be distributed or explained to school personnel and students at the beginning of each school year and shall be posted on an easily accessible page of each school’s website, as well as the website of the School Board. Such information shall include instruction on how to detect potential threats to school safety, visual examples of possible threats, and the process for reporting such threats.

Risk is imminent means that the available facts, when viewed in light of surrounding circumstances, would cause a reasonable person to believe that the event stated in the threat is about to happen.

School is as defined by La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §17:236 as an institution for the teaching of children, consisting of an adequate physical plant, whether owned or leased, instructional staff members, and students, and which operates a minimum session of not less than one hundred eighty (180) days.

Threat is credible means that the available facts, when viewed in light of surrounding circumstances, would cause a reasonable person to believe that the person communicating the threat actually intends to carry out the threat.

Threat of violence means communication, whether oral, visual, or written, including but not limited to electronic mail, letters, notes, social media posts, text messages, blogs, or posts on any social networking website, of any intent to kill, maim, or cause great bodily harm to a student, teacher, principal, or school employee on school property or at any school function.

Threat of terrorism means communication, whether oral, visual, or written, including but not limited to electronic mail, letters, notes, social media posts, text messages, blogs, or posts on any social networking website, of any crime of violence that would reasonably cause any student, teacher, principal, or school employee to be in sustained fear for his safety, cause the evacuation of a building, or cause other serious disruption to the operation of a school.

Any administrator, teacher, counselor, bus operator, or other school employee, whether full-time or part-time, who learns of a threat of potential violence or terrorism, whether through oral communication, written communication, or electronic communication, shall immediately report the threat to a local law enforcement agency, and if the employee is not a school administrator, to school administrators.

Upon being informed of the threat, the school administrator shall make reasonable efforts to attempt to inform all persons who are targets of the threat and shall take all necessary measures to protect their lives and safety.

The school administrator next shall make reasonable efforts to attempt to notify the appropriate personnel within the School District administration.

The school administrator and the School District administrator then shall determine if risk is imminent for any other persons because of the threat, and if so, notify them and make reasonable efforts to attempt to take measures to protect their lives and safety.

The school administrator and the School District administrator then shall determine whether to notify parents of the students at the school.

In addition to the oral reports of threats of violence or terrorism referenced above, and as soon as reasonably possible, employees shall document in writing their reports using a standardized form developed by the Superintendent as part of his/her administrative procedures for reporting threats to school safety. Those reporting procedures, at a minimum, shall include:

Name of school, person, or group being threatened.
Name of student, individual, or group threatening violence.
Date and time the threat was made.
Method by which the threat was made, including the social media outlet or website where the threat was posted, a screenshot or recording of the threat, if available, and any printed evidence of the threat.

If a threat to school safety is reported to a law enforcement agency, then the school shall present to that agency at the earliest possible opportunity, the completed form and evidence obtained. If the information suggests an immediate threat, school administrators shall follow procedures provided in the school’s Crisis Management and Response Plan.

If a law enforcement agency, based on its investigation as required by La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §17:409.4, determines that a student's threat is credible and imminent, it shall report it to the district attorney, who may file a petition no later than seven (7) days after receiving such report with the appropriate judicial district court for medical, psychological, and psychiatric examination. Where the district attorney, in his/her discretion, decides not to file the petition or does not file such petition during the requisite period, the student who is the subject of a complaint and investigation shall be permitted to return to school unless the student is charged with assault on a teacher as provided in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §14:38.2 or battery on a teacher as provided in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §14:34.3. The school shall permit a student who is the subject of a complaint and investigation to return to school if at any point prior to a hearing the threat is determined not to be credible after an investigation by the school administration, a law enforcement agency, or the district attorney or by order of the court after a hearing unless the student is charged with assault on a teacher as provided in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §14:38.2 or battery on a teacher as provided in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §14:34.3. The school administrator shall notify any person who was a target of the threat at least two (2) school days prior to the student's return. The school administrator or his/her designee may conduct a search of the student or his property for weapons upon the student's return.

If the person who is reported to a local law enforcement agency is not a student, he or she shall not be permitted to be within five hundred feet (500’) of any school until he or she has undergone a formal medical or mental health evaluation and has been deemed by a healthcare professional not to be dangerous to himself/herself or others. After such a determination, the person shall not be permitted in a school unless he has notified the school administrator of his intent to visit the school and he is notified that the administrator has provided at least two (2) school days' notice regarding the visit to anyone in the school who was directly threatened by the person. The school administrator may deny such person the right to visit the school.

No person shall have a cause of action against any person for an action taken or statement made in adherence with this policy unless based on conduct that is maliciously, willfully, and deliberately intended to cause harm or harass.