LAFAYETTE, La. — At Paul Breaux Middle, a school rooted in history and perseverance. There's growing concern and confusion within our community due to rumors of a potential closure, though unconfirmed by the Lafayette Parish School System.
Within the walls of what looks like a typical school on the outside, there's a lot of history on the inside. It served as Lafayette's only high school that taught black students during the civil rights era.
Named after Paul Breaux, an advocate of equal education for the black community, the school's rumored closure has sparked concern on social media. For Alton Trahan President of 100 Black Men of Greater Lafayette, this hits close to home.
“Not only does it represent something in the community of Lafayette parish but in particular with the black community. Paul Breaux represents something,” he says.
Students and teachers continue to make memories inside the school and for parents like Kate Hanks whose daughter goes to school there, she can’t imagine having her anywhere else, now she and others have created a petition to keep the school open.
"They are a lot of people that are invested in this school and the idea that they will be forced to moved from this location, this historical landmark location this is a big deal," Hanks said. "This impacts so many people for years to come and we feel the students are more important then a storage facility.”
For her and others, the school should be more than just an empty space.
“There’s a concern of moving some programs out of this location. Which we are against. We want the neighborhood school to stay here as well,” Trahan said.
KATC did some fact checking and a spokesperson for Lafayette Parish School System, Amanda Blanco stated via email:
"As a standard practice, we do not provide comments until an official agenda is published to ensure accuracy and clarity in our communication. Thank you for your understanding."
However LPSS Superintendent Francis Touchet stated:
"We are engaging with community members, we are providing the facts of where our parish is as a whole and we are going to be bringing different options to our board as far as consideration."
But for others in the community, they just want clarity.
“We heard that the students will be displaced among 4 different school campuses across the parish, there’s almost 700 students at this school and we really don’t want this to happen,” Hanks says.
The 100 Black Men will be holding a public forum to address these concerns, so a school filled with so much history can keep bringing in students from the outside.
"We felt the urge that the community needs to at least know what's being considered within the LPSS," said Trahan.
The next school board meeting is March 13th, with the agenda set to be released within the next few days.
