Louisiana
Louisiana’s 4-H program creates young leaders who sustain the state’s agriculture
Lanette G. Hebert, based in Rayne, serves as the southwest 4-H regional coordinator for the LSU AgCenter, bringing over 35 years of service to Louisiana’s 4-H youth development programs. Throughout her tenure, she has worked to empower youth, strengthen volunteer networks and build programs that foster leadership, citizenship and essential life skills. Last year, Hebert had a hand in hosting the Growing Careers … Beyond the Rice Field pilot program — an effort to introduce high school youth to the science and business of rice production, sponsored by the Louisiana Rice Promotion Board.
Hebert’s passion for community and education reflects her belief that investing in young people creates a stronger, brighter future for Louisiana.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What does your role with the AgCenter look like, beyond the rice field program?
We develop educational programs, and one that we’ve focused on is ag awareness. Out of our advisory process, someone suggested that we focus on the rice industry, since the LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station is within the southwest region.
Lanette G. Hebert serves as the southwest 4-H regional coordinator for the LSU AgCenter, bringing over 35 years of service to Louisiana’s 4-H youth development programs.
Do you plan to host another Beyond the Rice Field program in the future?
We’re going to propose that we do it every other year. We highlight all careers available in the ag industry, whereas this one was targeted just on the rice industry, so we plan to alternate them — one general ag awareness program and then the rice program.
What activities and curriculum did the students participate in for the rice field program?
We really called upon the professors at the rice research station. They went out with entomologists into the rice fields, looked for bugs and then evaluated the bugs and discussed how they would impact the rice crop.
In our agronomy lab, they took home seed plots and did different treatments on them. They learned about drones and got to fly drones. Every one of the six sessions highlighted the careers, but then also did some type of hands-on activity.
How are young people integral to the future of Louisiana agriculture?
That’s the driving force behind our ag awareness program, especially with this rice field day, is a concern for young people who are entering careers that are agriculture-based. We cooperate with the College of Ag at LSU to highlight those careers, from fashion merchandising to food science to agronomy.
We’re trying to expose them to a vast array of career opportunities in agriculture and what educational opportunities are available to them. With our rice field day, we emphasized internships and high school job opportunities that would expose them to see if they’d like this career choice.
One of the key things we’re trying to do is develop their awareness of the careers but also give them hands-on opportunities.
One of Lanette Hebert’s career highlights with her job at LSU AgCenter is taking 131 people to Ireland, where they spent 10 days studying agriculture in the country to compare it to Louisiana’s landscape.
How does 4-H develop leadership skills and teach students the soft skills needed in the workforce?
The ag awareness program is just one of the things we offer. Our statewide forage program offers opportunities in three core areas besides agriculture: STEM, healthy living and citizenship and leadership.
We start the 4-H program in fourth grade, and a lot of that is where they are exploring and learning about the different subject matters. As they stay with us in the 4-H program, we transition that into leadership. If a fourth grader starts off interested in the nutrition project and cooking, they’re learning how to measure ingredients, but we’re hoping, by 10th grade, they’re conducting the workshop for the fourth grader.
Louisiana 4-H is pretty unique. We have seven statewide leadership boards where we focus on subject matter and developing leaders in those areas. Every parish also has a team leadership program. That club focuses very heavily on leadership development.
How does 4-H work with external partners in the state — farmers, researchers, etc. — to bolster the program?
We’re always looking for community collaborators who are aligned with the missions of our 4-H program. The rice field day was a great example. It was awesome to see the passion that our researchers, research associates, extension faculty and farmers have for their career paths.
That’s always something, when we find a partner that has the same goal and passion of reaching young people and sustaining an industry.
Our STEM program is really growing right now, so robotics gives us a lot of opportunity to partner with local people as well. We have things like job interview contests, and we work with HR departments to do mock interviews.
We’re always trying to connect with people throughout the site to highlight their careers and passions for different subject matters that pertain to our young people.
Louisiana
Federal appeals court upholds Texas’ Ten Commandments law. What does it mean for Louisiana?
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a Texas law requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments, just weeks after the same court allowed a similar Louisiana law to take effect.
A majority of judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas’ law, which is nearly identical to Louisiana’s, is constitutional and does not violate students’ religious freedom. In February, the court lifted an injunction on Louisiana’s law, which cleared schools to put up the posters, but the judges said it was too early to rule on that law’s constitutionality.
Tuesday’s ruling could bode well for Louisiana’s law if it eventually returns to the 5th Circuit, considered the country’s most conservative federal court of appeals.
In their majority opinion, the judges rejected the argument that posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms would pressure students to honor the biblical mandates or adopt particular beliefs.
“To plaintiffs, merely exposing children to religious language is enough to make the displays engines of coercive indoctrination. We disagree,” the majority wrote about the Texas law, known as S.B. 10. A minority of the court’s active judges dissented.
Even though Tuesday’s ruling only addressed the Texas case, defenders of Louisiana’s legislation celebrated it as a victory. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the 5th Circuit’s argument in upholding Texas’ law was identical to the one Louisiana made in defense of its law.
“Our law clearly was always constitutional,” she posted on X, “and I am grateful that the Fifth Circuit has now definitively agreed with us.”
Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed the law in 2024, which requires all public K-12 schools and colleges to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. A group of parents quickly challenged the law in court, and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that stopped the state from enforcing the law.
In February, the 5th Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision, saying it had been premature to block the law before it took effect. The judges said they could not rule on the law’s constitutionality before seeing how it played out in schools.
But in the case of Texas’ law, which that state’s Republican-led Legislature passed in 2025, the court did rule on the merits.
Rejecting arguments made by attorneys for the Texas families who challenged the law, the 5th Circuit majority said that requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments does not amount to the government endorsing a particular religion, which the U.S. Constitution forbids. The law also does not impose religious beliefs on students, the judges wrote.
“As noted, S.B. 10 authorizes no religious instruction and gives teachers no license to contradict children’s religious beliefs (or their parents’),” the majority opinion says. “No child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin.”
The Texas families were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel. The same groups, including Louisiana’s ACLU chapter, represented the Louisiana families.
In a statement Tuesday, the organizations said they are “extremely disappointed” by the 5th Circuit’s ruling, adding that they expect to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction,” the groups said. “This decision tramples those rights.”
Nearly all major industries in Louisiana added jobs over the past year, signaling momentum for a stronger future, according to a recent report from Leaders for a Better Louisiana.
The organizat…
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Police say a man shot and killed eight children, including seven of his own, following a domestic dispute in Shreveport.
The incident took place early Sunday morning, April 19, on West 79th Street in the Cedar Grove neighborhood. According to the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office, the victims included three boys and five girls, aged between three and 11-years-old. Seven of the children were siblings, while one was a cousin. Two adult females were also injured, including one who was shot at a home located in the 500 block of Harrison Street.
One of the adults was inside the home on West 79th Street when the children were killed. She managed to escape through a window with two of the children and reached the roof. The woman jumped down with one of the children. Unfortunately, the other child did not manage to escape. Police later found his body on the roof with a gunshot wound. The surviving child was taken to the hospital with a broken leg.
The children were identified by their mothers as Jayla (age 3), Shayla (age 5), Kayla (age 6), Layla (age 7), Markaydon (age 10), Sariahh (age 11), Khedarrion (age 6), and Braylon (age 5).
Authorities say the suspect and father of the victims, Shamar Elkins, was the only person who fired shots that led to the juveniles’ deaths.
Authorities noted that Elkins stole a vehicle near West 79th Street after he shot the victims. He was pursued by patrol officers into Bossier Parish, where they discharged their weapons and fatally shot him on Brompton Lane. Louisiana State Police will take over the investigation involving the officers.
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux expressed his thoughts on the matter, saying, “We have a hurting community. We have hurting families. We have hurting police officers, coroner’s personnel, fire department, sheriff people, and this affects the entire community. We all mourn with these families. I ask, it’s a Sunday morning. I ask all of you who are, who are listening, who might be able to. Pray at your services this morning for not just this family, for all the victims, for the victims who are at the hospital, and for the Cedar Grove community and for the community at large.”
Attorney General Liz Murrill also commented on the tragic shooting, stating, “Multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating this tragic situation. We do not yet know all the details, but I am deeply saddened by the senseless loss of life. I’m praying for the victims and their family members in the wake of this devastating violence.”
According to the Director of Strategy and Communications, Mary Nash-Wood, two of the children attended Summer Grove, and at least four attended Linwood Charter School.
The police have not determined a motive. More updates will be provided as the information becomes available.
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