Louisiana high school bans backpacks after days of violence | Education | nola.com

After a recent spate of shootings, the Madison Parish school system temporarily banned middle and high school students from bringing backpacks to school.

In rural northeast Louisiana, the leaders of a small school district took a drastic step this week in response to an eruption of neighborhood violence: They temporarily banned middle and high school students from bringing backpacks to school.

The weeklong book-bag ban in Madison Parish followed a recent spate of shootings in Tallulah, the parish seat, that left one person dead and, in at least one instance, involved juveniles. Schools Superintendent Charlie Butler Jr. said high schoolers were ordered to temporarily leave their book bags at home to prevent them from bringing weapons — and retaliatory violence — into school.

“In the last few days, we haven’t had any incidents on our campus,” he said. “That was the whole reason: to make sure we didn’t have any disruptions.”

Though backpack bans are rare, school leaders across the state face a similar imperative to protect students from violence by any means necessary, oftentimes with limited resources at their disposal.

Beyond seeking to prevent school shootings like the one that took place in Georgia earlier this year — where a 14-year-old student killed two of his classmates and two teachers before being taken into custody — schools also must grapple with how to address violence that can spill from the community into classrooms.

While some schools have resorted to backpack bans or requiring students to use clear book bags, others have invested in metal detectors or costly gun-detection software. Yet funding is a major challenge for some school systems, especially in rural areas where limited tax revenue forces schools to rely on competitive grants for security upgrades.

The immense pressure to keep kids safe has led some school officials to keep ratcheting up security protocols, said Kenneth Trump, a school safety expert and president of the consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services.

"There’s such high anxiety, ambiguity and uncertainty around school safety," he said, "that I’ve seen even the most veteran school administrators with decades of experience questioning themselves in terms of making sure they’re doing everything possible.”

Trump encourages school personnel to be alert to incidents in the school or the community that could lead to violence among students, then try to intervene early.

“Are we anticipating a neighborhood conflict, a gang issue, some type of rivalry or altercation? Find who’s involved,” he said. “Just get that de-escalation in place.”

In Madison Parish, which has long struggled with high crime rates, the school district adopted a proactive approach to safety after an outburst of neighborhood violence.

It began with a shooting last week at an apartment complex in Tallulah that left one victim dead, news station KTVE reported. While State Police were on the scene investigating, another victim was shot in the leg in a separate incident at the same complex. One suspect was taken into custody.

On Saturday, several young people were involved in a drive-by, allegedly retaliation for the earlier homicide, the TV station reported. Police took two suspects into custody.

The next day, law enforcement was called again after a juvenile accidentally fired a gun into a ceiling. And on Monday, a man was taken into custody after shooting a firearm into the ground to scare his partner during an argument.

Butler knows that community violence can leak into schools. Last year, a similar rash of neighborhood shootings resulted in a handful of fights among students at the local high school, Butler said.

“It’s a small community,” he said. “The next day, we had a few fights because of relatives coming to school talking about the incident.”

To quell concerns that something similar could happen this time, Butler said he and other district leaders decided to ban students at the parish's secondary school, Madison High School, from bringing bags or backpacks onto campus.

Madison High School Principal Perry Revels announced the decision in a Facebook post Monday.

To “create an environment that is conducive to teaching and learning, as well as to create a culture of excellence,” the post said, students “are expected to leave all backpacks at home this week.” the post read.

The high school already has metal detectors that students pass through each morning, Butler said. But when incidents occur in the community that could lead to more violence, the district often adds extra safety measures.

In this case, he said few parents have complained about the temporary bag ban because the district's high schoolers don't need textbooks for most of their classes.

“They hardly use backpacks anyway,” he said. “We’re electronic with most of our curriculum, so we haven’t heard anything about parents disagreeing.”

Email Elyse Carmosino at [email protected].