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S at u r d ay, F e b r u a ry 22, 2025
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LAFAYETTE PARISH
School Board OKs possible layoffs Officials grant green light âif necessaryâ to superintendent BY ASHLEY WHITE Staff writer
The Lafayette Parish School Board voted to give the superintendent a green light to lay off teachers and administrators âif necessaryâ and without additional parameters. The board unanimously voted Thursday to give Superintendent Francis Touchet Jr. the ability to implement a reduction-in-force of existing personnel if necessary. The approved policy lays out
that teachers and administrators will be ďŹrst terminated based on effectiveness. However, an LPSS spokesperson said, âThe superintendent has reassured certiďŹed teachers that they will have a place.â However, the board â unlike in past instances and despite requests from the teachers union â did not place any additional parameters on the policy that outlines how a reduction-in-force is implemented. The board gave the superin-
tendent the ability to implement a reduction-in-force of existing personnel âif necessary.â That language is âtoo vague,â teachers union president and school librarian Julia Reed told board members. âNecessary can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people,â she said. Reed asked that the board place restrictions, such as speciďŹc positions, or directly attach decisions to the budget. Without the
STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRAD BOWIE
The Lafayette Parish School Board voted to give the superintendent the ä See LAYOFFS, page 4A power to lay off teachers and administrators without parameters.
OBSTACLE COURSE
Blind college student struggles to find help to be independent
Lawsuit challenging La. execution methods reopened BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN and JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writers
A federal judge has reopened a long-running court case that could put Louisianaâs plans on hold to execute death row inmates Jessie Hoffman and Christopher Sepulvado next month. U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick, the chief judge in Louisianaâs Middle District, agreed Friday to reopen a lawsuit initially ďŹled in 2012 that challenged the stateâs execution methods. The decision came in response a request from attorneys for death row inmates who sought to urgently reopen the case â and who are ultimately seeking stays of execution for Sepulvado and Hoffman.
ä See LAWSUIT, page 4A
STAFF PHOTO By ALENA MASCHKE
Cody Fontenot, right, and fellow SOWELA Technical Community College culinary student Tianna Guillory fill glasses for the upcoming lunch service at the Culinary, Gaming and Hospitality Building at the Lake Charles campus on Wednesday. BY ALENA MASCHKE
Staff writer
As a child, Cody Fontenot asked for all the things other children would ask for: He wanted to learn how to ride a bike, play the drums, skateboard and sleep in the top bunk. For a while, he went to a public school and eventually lived by himself with a roommate for a while as a young adult. âWe always taught him that he could do anything anyone else could do, except legally drive,â his mother, Melanie Winters said. âHe wants to be very independent. Always has been. Thatâs his biggest thing, is his independence.â Fontenot is blind. Born prematurely at 27 weeks with detached retinas, he lost his eyesight at two months old. Now a college student at SOWELA Technical Community College in Lake Charles, there was something he couldnât fully manage on his own:
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âThey pay for the service, but they donât find you a reader. If you donât have that person, it affects your grades. The challenge is trying to find the right one.â CODy FONTENOT reading his school materials. Finding someone to help him was a challenge. Louisiana Rehabilitation Services, a division of the Louisiana Workforce Commission, provides funding for vocational rehabilitation, with the help of federal government grants. As part of the program, blind and visually impaired people can hire someone to help them read, paid for by LRS. But the responsibility to ďŹnd a reader lies with the blind person. Not every blind person requires a human reader in every environ-
ment. Especially in a digitized world, programs that turn written words into audio format can serve as an alternative, but not all digital ďŹles are machine-readable. Sometimes, having a human reader can be more effective than any technology, for example when ďŹnding the right brand of a product at the grocery store. Fontenot found himself pondering his options. He reached out to student services, to LRS, but no luck. Both told him they couldnât help him ďŹnd someone to hire. âThey pay for the service, but they donât find you a reader,â Fontenot said. âIf you donât have that person, it affects your grades,â he added. âThe challenge is trying to ďŹnd the right one.â SOWELA staff said they aim to provide reasonable accommodations, including providing materials in an accessible format or having
ä See OBSTACLE, page 4A
Standoff suspect charged with murder July 25 incident led to shooting death of Lafayette police officer
BY CLAIRE TAYLOR and STEPHEN MARCANTEL Staff writers
The man who was holed-up in a Jeanerette mobile home in July when Lafayette Senior Cpl. Segus Jolivette was fatally shot has been charged with second-degree murder and 10 counts of attempted ďŹrst-degree murder. Nyjal Hurst, 31, of Jeanerette, who has been in the Iberia Parish Jail since the July 25 shooting, was charged Friday with additional crimes by the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations, according to a news release. Hurst was charged Friday with Jolivette second-degree murder, 10 counts of attempted ďŹrst-degree murder, two counts of second-degree kidnapping, possession of a ďŹrearm by a convicted felon and illegal possession of a stolen ďŹrearm. He has been held on a $500,000 bond. The incident began July 25 in Jeanerette. The Jeanerette City Marshal attempted to serve a
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ä See STANDOFF, page 4A
100TH yEAR, NO. 237