JENNINGS — The tragic shooting in Ulvalde may have been over 400 miles away but it still hit close to home here in Jennings.
Wilbert Gilbeaux with the Jeff Davis Parish School Board has been with the board for 20 years and although things have changed over time, safety remains the top priority
"Academics and curriculum play a big part of what our responsibility is, but at the top of it is child safety", says Gilbeaux.
During the day, Guilbeaux is head of child welfare for the school system... but around the clock, he's a father.
"I definitely have two children in the school district. I have one in middle school and one in elementary school."
He's taught his kids that you can never be too safe.
"I feel that my children go to school and they're safe every day. We also need to take into consideration in training for anything that may happen like this."
Those lessons taught at home are the same ones in the classrooms of the parish.
For added protection, area schools have on-campus officers, a high level of security and visitors must enter through the front office.
"We are in the process of evaluating everything as today's our last day of school. So we'll be evaluating everything that's going on with safety to see if any adjustments need to be made."
Despite the distance, Gilbeaux says they study each shooting incident across the country to better prepare for their backyard.
"That would allow us to make sure that our areas are reinforced and safe and we can provide the level of safety that is required to ensure that we minimize the threat of anything like that happening.
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