More than 20 L.J. Alleman students face expulsion for participating in a Tik Tok video trend.
Parents are questioning the severity of the discipline...
That Tik Tok trend now has over 20 L.J. Alleman students facing expulsion... and that discipline is leaving parents with more questions than answers.
According to the attorney representing many of the families, Pat Magee, he was told the students participated in two sets of videos in mid-December.
Those videos were part of a viral tik tok trend that now has them facing major disciplinary actions.
According to our partners at the advocate, The videos show the children waving and making gestures at the camera, either making finger guns, waving an open hand or using their cellphones to mime a gun as part of the video trend. Similar videos set to the songs can be found on TikTok, including ones that feature college and professional athletes.
Magee says the students then had an expulsion hearing where the principal was able to make adjustments to that discipline.
McGee says the school changed it from discipline code 70, which states there was an aggressive action directed at a student or a threat or unwanted physical contact while on school grounds, to a code 21... to include any other offense not covered by any of the codes of discipline under LPSS guidelines.
One parent who chose not to be identified says her child has only had an ID infraction.
“I haven’t seen the video, so I myself have not been able to identify my own child. I understand that it was something done on school grounds, I understand all of that. I think there should be some sort of discipline. But I just think this is really harsh,” the mother said.
She's now concerned about the future of her child’s education.
“....Later on that day I received the acceptance letter from the Lafayette High Academy saying she wasn’t eligible due to discipline. So this is throwing a wrench in our plans for her and I think it’s unfair.”
Magee says he believes the disciplinary action in this case needs to be based on a student-by-student basis.
“We’re not saying there needs to be an absence of punishment. No, but the punishment needs to fit the behavior. That’s why you have a rubric, and when you misuse the rubrics by saying, “It’s any other serious offense” Then you know they don’t really have a cause of action to justify what they’re doing. They’re making it up as they go along,” Magee said.
“The anxiety is at an all time high, on Friday she called me at work and was like “mom could we just skip the hearing and put me in another school and it’s because she doesn’t want to have to go through this and I don’t blame her,” the mother said
We reached out to the Lafayette Parish School System about this matter, they say, "LPSS does not publicly share information regarding internal investigations or disciplinary actions of our students or staff. This information is shared only with the affected parties.
The student code of conduct and discipline guidelines can be found in our Student/Parent Handbook."
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