“Sometimes people in the community ask us to police things that aren’t in our purview,” Roussel said in the January 17 New Orleans Times-Picayune, admitting that ACLU of Louisiana was correct in cautioning Riverdale Principal Randy Bennett December 20 that the school lacked statutory authority to control students’ whereabouts or act in loco parentis after the school day ends. The civil-rights advocacy group had stepped in after a parent brought the policy to the organization’s attention.
Although Bennett expressed concern that things would “probably degenerate to what they once were, and that’s a shame,” JPLS Director Lon Dickerson told the Times-Picayune that he would meet with school and community leaders about an alternate supervised hangout for students who don’t want to do homework right after school. “We want kids in the library,” Dickerson explained, “but we need to discuss what would attract them to the library to do productive work”—noting that despite the repudiated policy, some children still bided their time on Rosedale library computers until as late as 9 p.m. while they awaited a ride home.
Posted January 19, 2007.