SAVE $ 00 2
largest selection & lowest prices on wine, spirits & beer SAVE up $ 00 to 4
— ONLY —
16
$ 12 PACK 12 OZ
CELEBRATING OUR FIRST 65 YEARS
Limitesde Relea
LB
Corona Extra or Modelo
— ONLY —
99
LB
13
$ 750 ML SELECTED
THC
— ONLY —
99
Louisiana Local
4 PACK 16 OZ
La Crema Monterey Wine or LaMarca Prosecco
15
$
— ONLY —
99
19
$ 750 ML
LIMIT 3
Parish Sazerac Actias Luna Triple IPA Rye
visit rouses.com for more weekly ad specials!
— ONLY —
18
99
$ 750 ML
Myers’s Dark Rum
— ONLY —
99
17 99
$ 4 PACK 12 OZ
High Rise THC Seltzer
Prices good at all Lafayette, New Iberia and Youngsville stores August 6th - 13th, 2025.
PPRESEASON: SHOUGH OUTPERFORMS RATTLER IN LOSS TO CHARGERS 1C THE
ACADIANA
ADVOCATE
T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
|
M o n d ay, au g u s t 11, 2025
GROUNDBREAKING
TREATMENT
La.’s first sickle cell gene therapy patient aims to fly
$2.00X
Absenteeism remains issue for Lafayette students Parish school system taking steps to lower rates
BY ASHLEY WHITE | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By SOPHIA GERMER
Daniel Cressy sits on a hospital bed as his blood stem cells are harvested as part of the process to remove sickle cell disease at Manning Family Children’s in New Orleans on July 30. BY EMILY WOODRUFF | Staff writer
pain of his chronic disease. Once those modified stem cells are reintroduced and take root in his bone marrow, Cressy hopes to be in the air, too. The This story is the first in an occasional series following gene therapy is his second chance after the Federal Aviation Louisiana’s first patients to receive gene therapy for Administration denied his medical clearance to be a pilot. sickle cell disease. Cressy, 22, is the first person in Louisiana to receive a On the third floor of Manning Family Children’s hospital groundbreaking gene therapy that could offer a functional in New Orleans recently, a spinning centrifuge wobbled and cure for sickle cell. Thousands of people in the state live with the same diagnosis, but getting this multimillion-dollar hummed next to Daniel Cressy’s bed. From his neck, thin tubes snaked into the machine spin- treatment isn’t easy. For Cressy, it took 18 months of evaluning his blood, separating out the stem cells doctors hope ations and insurance approvals. Across the state, more pawill help cure his sickle cell disease. tients are lining up, but only one other person, a 10-year-old Later the same day, the bag of blood hanging from the top in Shreveport, has made it through the approvals process of the machine was on its way to Scotland, where the stem so far. cells were scheduled to be genetically edited to reset his ä See TREATMENT, page 4A body’s switch for protection from the searing, unpredictable
Absenteeism in schools is a basic concept. If students aren’t in class, they’re missing out on educational time, which can cause them to fall behind in their classes and leave them ill-prepared for whatever comes next. But states around the U.S., including Louisiana, are still struggling with high absenteeism rates that soared during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the state Department of Education and Lafayette Parish school system Superintendent Francis Touchet Jr. are pushing initiatives to focus on the issue this year. Most people are likely familiar with the term truancy, which is when a student has five or more unexcused absences in a semester. But chronic absenteeism is when a student misses 10% or more of the days they’ve been enrolled in their current school, regardless of if the absence is excused. That includes time missed for doctor’s appointments or suspensions. “Our No. 1 goal is to get kids in school and get them educated from day one,” said Rollan Moore, the director of child welfare and attendance for the school system. “On average, when students have good average daily attendance, they get educational instruction, they get the units they need for next level and they have the adequate knowledge to be successful.” Attendance counts start from the first day of the school, including the district’s staggered start days. Chronic absenteeism is an issue that’s plaguing the United States. During the 2023-24 school year, about 23.5% of students were chronically absent, according to national data. That’s not as high as the rate at the peak of the pandemic — about 29% — but still higher than the pre-pandemic level of about 15%. Lafayette Parish’s overall chronic
ä See ABSENTEEISM, page 5A
Louisiana Democrats working to rebuild the party But a solidly Republican voter base means some crossing the aisle
BY TYLER BRIDGES | Staff writer Beto O’Rourke was fired up when he appeared before an enthusiastic crowd of more than 1,000 people in New Orleans on Thursday night, telling them that Democrats can begin turning around their for-
WEATHER HIGH 91 LOW 74 PAGE 10C
tunes in Louisiana. The path, said O’Rourke, a former congressman who lost highly publicized races for the U.S. Senate and governor in Texas, requires “finding and fielding the candidates who are going to show up and authentically and honestly engage with the people they want to serve, learn from them, reflect what they are hearing, campaign like there is no tomorrow.” It’s a path lined with obstacles. In the 2023 elections, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry surprised most observers by
cruising to victory in the primary over his Democratic challenger, negating the need for a runoff. Republicans also prevailed once again in all of the other statewide offices, and they captured enough additional legislative seats to claim a two-thirds supermajority in both the House and the Senate. Republicans have not held so much power in Louisiana since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era 150 years ago.
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
Beto O’Rourke speaks during a town hall meeting ä See DEMOCRATS, page 5A at the Howlin’ Wolf in New Orleans on Thursday.
Classified .....................4B Living............................5C Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Lottery..........................4B Opinion ........................2B Commentary ................3B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
101ST yEAR, NO. 42