Louisiana
Disturbing videos show teens mocking disabled student at Louisiana school
Disturbing videos show a group of high school students mocking a Louisiana teen with cerebral palsy — while riding around on his motorized wheelchair they swiped as part of a sick prank.
One of the clips, posted on TikTok and Facebook by nine-grader Tay’Shawn Landry’s mother, shows a boy riding her son’s wheelchair in an Abbeville High School hallway strewn with toilet paper.
The student makes squealing and slurring sounds that appear to be making fun of Landry, who his mom said has been traumatized by the incident even though he was not present at the time.
His wheelchair had been in a classroom at the time the students gained access to the school, according to an official with the Vermilion Parish district.
“Sr. Pranks are fun and all but when you make fun of my disabled kid and his belongings then IT BECOMES MY PROBLEM!” Landry’s mom, Kimberly Mitchell, wrote.
“I don’t care who’s [sic] parents get upset but there will be consequences. I SAID WHAT I SAID! Y’all played with the wrong child & THE WRONG MAMA,” she continued.
Cerebral palsy is a congenital disorder that affects movement, muscle tone, and posture.
Mitchell said the incident has left her son not wanting to go back to school.
“As a mother, it hurt me to see my son upset and not wanting to go back to school because he took it as people making fun of him because he’s different,” she wrote.
Landry spoke to KLFY about the sickening act of bullying that took place on Thursday.
“I was upset. I was mad. I was crying. I tried to stop myself from crying because I wanted to go to school. [I] couldn’t. I was just upset,” the boy told the news outlet.
“Some people that I know. Some people that I go to school with and they want to turn their back on me and do this — that is not acceptable.”
Laundry’s grandmother Marilyn Mitchell said his disability makes it difficult for him to get around.
“His ambulation is horrible. He never stood. He had never walked in his life,” she told KLFY, adding that he has also undergone surgery.
“Now he has scoliosis making it even harder for him to move around. Let them see how it is to be on that floor on that cement going back and forth,” Marilyn said.
The boy’s other grandmother, Clarice Landry, said she is worried about his mental health.
“With doing something like this, a prank of this nature, his mentality status,” she told the station.
“In the time frame of them doing this to Tay’Shawn and what he has been through can play a role in his mental status. With everything that’s going on in the world today with the kids, we don’t know how it’s going to affect him in the long term.”
The family wants the bullies to face consequences for their actions.
“They say that these are good kids. I’m not saying that they’re not good kids, but if you are a good kid, why did you do this to Tay’Shawn?” Clarice Landry said.
“If they could only walk a day in his shoes, they could see how he felt when he found out that they did that to him. How would they feel if someone would do that to them or if they had a family member that had a disability and someone would take and do something like that how would they feel?” she added.
Tay’Shawn’s mom also wrote a letter detailing the incident.
“These days, people do any and everything to follow a trend. It was a senior trend that went too far,” she wrote in the lengthy letter, which includes a photo of her son in his wheelchair.
“Sometimes things are done because we think it’s funny not knowing how it could make someone else feel. Nothing was funny about the situation because everyone who is commenting on the situation isn’t raising a kid or has a sibling, or family member with my son’s condition.”
The single mom said her son “was born this way, he didn’t ask to be this way.”
“No, he wasn’t there when the prank occurred but to wake up and see the videos caused anguish. To them it seemed fun, but to my son it seemed as if he was being impersonated because of the things seen done in ‘HIS’ personal wheelchair,” she added.
Kimberley, who noted that she has not described anyone as a “bully,” said she wants the students to be held accountable for their actions, including paying for any possible repairs for the $15,000 chair.
“Right now we are hoping and praying that the chair is still mobile (not broken),” she wrote.
School board Superintendent Tommy Byle released a statement to KLFY about the incident, which he said occurred after the unsupervised students got into the school using keys they got from an employee.
“Videos became available via social media that the students gained access into a locked room that housed an electric wheelchair on loan to an AHS student that uses it during the school, day,” he wrote.
“Multiple students were seen riding through the halls on the wheelchair and displayed actions that were insensitive and disrespectful to students with disabilities,” he added.
Byle said school officials have notified the central office and the students involved have apologized to Tay’Shawn and that “conversations” have taken place with the offenders.
The official added that the matter remains under investigation and that “any disciplinary actions against students and or faculty are confidential.”
Louisiana
Texas follows Louisiana’s lead to reclassify reproductive care drugs as controlled substances • Louisiana Illuminator
A Texas lawmaker has filed a bill that would reclassify two drugs used for reproductive health as controlled substances, which would place further restrictions on their access.
The proposal mirrors a law in Louisiana that went into effect Oct. 1 that treats mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances in state law. While the drugs are used in medication abortions, they have other applications such as treating life-threatening hemorrhaging.
Texas state Rep.-elect Pat Curry, a Republican from Austin, has filed legislation, House Bill 1339, that is comparable to the Louisiana law. Some health care providers have criticized Louisiana’s measure over its stricter storage and documentation requirements. Physicians have said the additional steps could place patients’ lives at risk.
Both Louisiana and Texas have strict abortion bans in place. Both states bar the procedure in almost all instances.
The Texas Legislature convenes for its next lawmaking session Jan. 14.
Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed the new law, Act 246, in May, despite 270 doctors signing a letter against it. Mifepristone and misoprostol have been pulled off obstetric hemorrhage carts in hospitals and are now stored in passcode-protected cabinets outside of labor and delivery rooms.
Misoprostol is a pill often used to help prevent and treat post-delivery bleeding, especially for patients with hypertension or asthma who might have adverse side effects from using other hemorrhage medications usually administered with hypodermic needles or through an IV.
Doctors and pharmacists in Louisiana have scrambled to come up with postpartum hemorrhage protocols that comply with the law while still providing fast, life-saving care for women.
LCMC Health and Ochsner Health System, which own and operate hospitals throughout Louisiana, keep the drug in a large passcode-protected storage locker on their maternity units. The state health department released guidelines suggesting hospitals modify their obstetric hemorrhage carts to add a locked compartment, but care providers at hospitals have said this isn’t a feasible option.
Louisiana rural hospitals, which have limited resources compared to Ochsner and LCMC Health, expected to see the biggest impact from the law. With fewer pharmacists and OB-GYNs on staff, critics of the new law fear delays will be compounded in such areas.
Reproductive health activists and doctors have warned that the Louisiana law could set a new precedent for how other states will treat mifepristone and misoprostol. Congressional Democrats released a report last month calling the law “anti-science.”
The Louisiana law was authored by state Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, who added the drug reclassifications as amendments to his bill that originally created the crime of coerced abortion. He wrote the bill after his pregnant sister, Catherine Herring of Houston, was given an abortion drug by her then-husband without her knowledge.
Herring’s daughter was born 10 weeks premature, and her ex-spouse, Mason Herring, pleaded guilty to endangering a child and assault against a pregnant person. He was sentenced to 180 days, a punishment Pressly and his sister thought was too light.
“I commend the Texas Legislature for introducing legislation to address the weaponization of abortion drugs,” Pressly said in a text message Thursday evening. “The reclassification of misoprostol and mifepristone as scheduled drugs enables healthcare providers to continue to prescribe them for legitimate healthcare purposes while limiting the ability of bad actors to obtain them.”
“My sister and nieces’s story is a prime example of why the reclassification is necessary and appropriate,” the senator added.
The Texas bill is specifically about rescheduling the drug, and is not connected to a criminal coerced abortion law. If approved, it would take effect Sept. 1, 2025. It also adds carisoprodol, a muscle relaxant, to the Schedule IV controlled substances list for the state.
Last month, Louisiana health care providers and advocates filed a lawsuit that claims Act 246 violates the state constitution. The plaintiffs argue it discriminates against people based on a physical condition. They also believe state lawmakers approved a bill that strayed too far from its original version, which Article III of the Louisiana Constitution forbids.
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Louisiana
Experts warn oil and gas can’t save Louisiana’s economy — even under Trump
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to lift roadblocks to oil and gas production and approve construction of more than a dozen liquefied natural gas terminals in Louisiana and elsewhere.
At the same time, a special session in the Louisiana Legislature that began Nov. 6 seeks to cut state taxes for oil refineries and petrochemical companies. The state’s generous property tax exemption for industry won’t be touched.
But a new report and long-time observers of the state’s economy say continuing to expect the oil and gas industry to provide an economic renaissance in Louisiana is unrealistic. Not only do those industries no longer drive Louisiana’s economy — providing just 4.5% percent of state revenue, compared with 40% percent in the late 1990s — but slowing global demand for those commodities is poised to further diminish the industry’s benefits to the state.
Louisiana’s growth trajectory is less like most of its neighboring states and more like Puerto Rico, which has experienced negative or very small economic growth in recent years, said Tom Sanzillo of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and an author of the report titled “The Declining Significance of the Petrochemical Industry in Louisiana.”
“At the turn of the 21st century, Louisiana had one of the country’s fastest-growing economies, placing sixth among the states for five-year average gross domestic product (GDP) growth”, according to the report. “Today, Louisiana is 49th out of 50 states in GDP growth. It also ranks 49th in population growth and 45th in median household income.”
The report also notes that in 1999, the oil and gas sector accounted for 33% of the state’s GDP. By 2022, it had sunk to 14%.
“I mean, we’re reviewing stuff all over the world now,” Sanzillo said. “And I looked at that, and I said, ‘That can’t be right. This is stunning.’ ”
State a leader in fossil fuel emissions
Because of its ties to fossil fuels — either through production of natural gas and oil or by burning it and using it at petrochemical plants — Louisiana is the sixth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, in the United States.
And Louisiana is the second most vulnerable state to climate change caused by those emissions — prone to stronger hurricanes, rising sea levels and increasing heat and rainfall.
“The oil and gas industry has a hold on the popular imagination, our self-image and our politics that is way disproportionate to their actual economic impact and their impact on actual communities,” said Jan Moller, executive director of the Invest in Louisiana, a nonpartisan economic think tank.
The IEEFA report says the state must diversify its economy to thrive, a conclusion echoed by a Moody’s Investor Service report that warned earlier this year of “revenue volatility stemming from (Louisiana’s) financial and economic dependency on oil and gas extraction and refining.”
Louisiana State University economics professor emeritus Jim Richardson agrees the state must diversify. He served 30 years as the economist on the Louisiana Revenue Estimating Conference, the state’s economic forecasting panel.
“We’re an oil and gas state, but, well, we need to be more than that,” Richardson said.
Petrochem sector already saturated
Sanzillo says even a Trump administration can’t change worldwide markets. Global supply of some of the chemicals produced in Louisiana is already exceeding worldwide demand, according to the report.
While it provides an overall picture of oil, gas and petrochemical production in Louisiana, the report focuses specifically on two substances: ethylene, a building block for other chemicals and plastics, and methanol, which is used for fuel and to make plastics, paints and cosmetics. Both substances are made using fossil fuels as feedstock.
Industrial capacity to manufacture ethylene exceeded demand for the substance by an annual average of 17 million tons from 1990 through 2023, according to the Independent Commodity Intelligence Service. Ethylene capacity is expected to exceed demand over the next six years by 53 million tons, according to the same source.
The IEEFA report examined 24 petrochemical projects in Louisiana in various stages of development. Of those, 61% are ethylene or methanol plants, with investments totaling $82 billion. Those plants have been approved for $6.8 billion in property tax breaks through the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP).
State sees future in oil, gas and petrochem
Louisiana Economic Development, a state agency, looks at some of the same petrochemical projects cited by IEEFA and sees evidence that the industries themselves are diversifying, benefitting the state’s economy.
“Diversification and innovation in Louisiana’s energy sector has been well documented, and nationally recognized,” LED spokesman Mark Lorando said. “Since 2018, companies have committed more than $61 billion of capital investment in a wide variety of new energy projects across the state, representing the potential creation of more than 26,000 direct and indirect jobs.”
He added, “Many of these companies, including our legacy energy industry, are implementing innovative technologies in renewable fuels and blue hydrogen, as they capitalize on a workforce skilled in energy production.”
At least a third of the projects highlighted by LED will rely on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). Sanzillo’s group and others say CCS is “unproven and expensive.”
The oil, gas and petrochemical sector also are not the job creators they once were. Currently, oil, gas and related industries employ 45,000 people, according to LED — fewer than 3% of the state’s 2 million workers. Another 260,000 have jobs indirectly associated with the industry. As recently as the 1980s, more than 120,000 people were directly employed by the industry.
Part of that decrease is from automation at chemical plants. “Our industrial capacity can grow, but the number of people working there does not necessarily grow at the same rate. And again, is that bad from a company perspective? Are they trying to be mean to us? No, they’re merely trying to be competitive in a worldwide economy,” Richardson said.
Engineers are often the primary employees at the petrochemical plants, not blue-collar line workers, Moller said. “These aren’t your parents’ factories.”
Deep tax cuts for industry eyed
Under Landry’s tax plan, some corporations would have their income taxes more than cut in half — from a maximum 7.5% to 3%. A franchise tax, which is imposed on a business’ net worth, would be eliminated. Louisiana is one of 18 states and the District of Columbia that levies a franchise tax.
But Moller points out that “Louisiana already has the most generous corporate, manufacturing incentive anywhere in the country … in ITEP. Now we are going to cut back the two taxes that we do get,” Moller said. Under ITEP, manufacturing industries — including those manufacturing chemicals — are exempt from paying 80% of their property taxes for up to 10 years.
Landry’s plan proposes the state make up for the loss of corporate taxes through a variety of measures, such as cutting incentives to the film industry and making permanent a .45 cent increase in sales tax on online products and services, including video streaming services.
Louisiana has the 10th most regressive taxing regime in the nation, putting 13.1% of the tax burden on families making the lowest amount of money, while taxing the richest taxpayers 6.5%, according to the Institute for Taxation and Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan tax policy group.
Social contract with fossil fuel industry broken
The state has been grappling for years to find a way to plug the fiscal hole left by tax breaks given to oil and gas industries. Moller said this session won’t fundamentally help.
He noted that Louisiana Gov. Huey P. Long, a populist who served as governor from 1928 to 1932, “struck a social contract with oil and gas that persisted for like, 50 years, and it was basically like, ‘We’re going to open ourselves to you.’
“And in exchange, those industries would pay taxes to keep the government operating, and keep taxes low for everyone else. And that was the social contract, and it worked until it stopped working in the 1980s,” Moller said. “We’ve never seriously figured out how to replace the money that we got from the oil and gas industry for generations.”
In the report, IEEFA calls for something akin to a federal military base closure committee in which government and industry come together to find ways to mitigate the loss of oil and gas revenues and explore new avenues of economic development.
Richardson has watched as three decades of Louisiana governors and politicians worked to attract different industries — including health care, technology and tourism. He says there’s no easy answer to fix the state’s economy.
“Everybody wants to grow and everyone wants to do better,” he said. “I think we’re having a hard time finding that next sector that we can actually grow big time.” But, for the state’s governors, who may only serve four years, “If they want a success story, (energy) is what they are going to do.”
The institute’s report points out that many of the projects are being developed in Black communities, including in the corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans called “Cancer Alley.”
“Maybe once a long time ago those communities could have claimed big benefits and taxes and … jobs,” Sanzillo said. “Now, they’re just getting a burden.”
Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.
Louisiana
Louisiana (LHSAA) high school football playoffs: 2024 brackets, Round 1 matchups, game times
The Louisiana high school football playoffs kick off this week with first-round action in every division.
Stick with High School on SI for complete coverage of the 2024 LHSAA football playoffs.
Here are the Louisiana high school football playoff brackets, with matchups and game times for every LHSAA division:
(1) Vermilion Catholic has a bye
(16) Westminster Academy vs. (17) Delta Charter
7 p.m. Friday
(9) St. Martin’s Episcopal vs. (24) Delhi Charter
7 p.m. Friday
(8) St. Edmund has a bye
(5) Ascension Episcopal has a bye
(12) Kentwood vs. (21) St. Mary’s
7 p.m. Friday
(13) Southern Lab vs. (20) Sacred Heart
7 p.m. Friday
(4) St. Frederick has a bye
(3) Covenant Christian Academy has a bye
(14) Central Catholic vs. (19) Lincoln Prep
7 p.m. Friday
(11) Ouachita Christian vs. (22) Glenbrook
7 p.m. Friday
(6) Catholic of Pointe Coupee has a bye
(7) Riverside Academy has a bye
(10) Hamilton Christian vs. (23) St. John
7 p.m. Friday
(15) Opelousas Catholic vs. (18) Westminster Christian Academy
7 p.m. Friday
(2) Ascension Catholic has a bye
(1) Haynesville has a bye
(16) Montgomery vs. (17) Vinton
7 p.m. Friday
(9) Welsh vs. (24) West St. Mary
7 p.m. Friday
(8) Ferriday vs. (25) Lake Arthur
7 p.m. Friday
(5) North Iberville vs. (28) Oberlin
7 p.m. Friday
(12) General Trass vs. (21) Centerville
7 p.m. Friday
(13) Grand Lake vs. (20) Jonesboro-Hodge
7 p.m. Friday
(4) Jeanerette has a bye
(3) DeQuincy has a bye
(14) White Castle vs. (19) Franklin
7 p.m. Friday
(11) Elton vs. (22) Basile
7 p.m. Friday
(6) Logansport vs. (27) Varnado
7 p.m. Friday
(7) Mangham vs. (26) East Iberville
7 p.m. Friday
(10) West St. John vs. (23) Arcadia
7 p.m. Friday
(15) Homer vs. (18) East Feliciana
7 p.m. Friday
(2) South Plaquemines has a bye
(1) Dunham has a bye
(16) Parkview Baptist vs. (17) Lafayette Renaissance Charter Academy
7 p.m. Friday
(9) Lafayette Christian Academy vs. (24) Beekman
7 p.m. Friday
(8) Notre Dame has a bye
(5) Bunkie has a bye
(12) Amite vs. (21) Reed
7 p.m. Friday
(13) Slaughter Community Charter vs. (20) Thomas Jefferson
7 p.m. Friday
(4) Jewel Sumner has a bye
(3) Calvary Baptist Academy has a bye
(14) De La Salle vs. (19) Fisher
7 p.m. Friday
(11) Pope John Paul II vs. (22) Holy Savior Menard
7 p.m. Friday
(6) Episcopal has a bye
(7) Catholic – N.I. has a bye
(10) Northlake Christian vs. (23) St. Louis Catholic
7 p.m. Friday
(15) D’Arbonne Woods vs. (18) Metairie Park Country Day
7 p.m. Friday
(2) Newman has a bye
(1) St. James has a bye
(16) Baker vs. (17) Donaldsonville
7 p.m. Friday
(9) Pine vs. (24) St. Helena College and Career Academy
7 p.m. Friday
(8) Kaplan vs. (25) North Webster
7 p.m. Friday
(5) Union Parish vs. (28) Oakdale
7 p.m. Friday
(12) Red River vs. (21) Winnfield
7 p.m. Friday
(13) Westlake vs. (20) Crowley
7 p.m. Friday
(4) Kinder has a bye
(3) Oak Grove has a bye
(14) Mansfield vs. (19) Avoyelles
7 p.m. Friday
(11) Lakeside vs. (22) Bogalusa
7 p.m. Friday
(6) Sterlington vs. (27) Patterson
7 p.m. Friday
(7) Jena vs. (26) Caldwell Parish
7 p.m. Friday
(10) Church Point vs. (23) Port Allen
7 p.m. Friday
(15) Loreauville vs. (18) Marksville
7 p.m. Friday
(2) Erath has a bye
(1) Archbishop Shaw has a bye
(16) Loranger vs. (17) Kenner Discovery
7 p.m. Friday
(9) Lake Charles College Prep vs. (24) McKinley
7 p.m. Thursday
(8) Kennedy has a bye
(5) Madison Prep has a bye
(12) St. Charles Catholic vs. (21) Northside
7 p.m. Friday
(13) Istrouma vs. (20) Washington
7 p.m. Friday
(4) Haynes Academy has a bye
(3) E.D. White has a bye
(14) Frederick A. Douglass vs. (19) Livingston Collegiate Academy
5 p.m. Saturday
(11) St. Michael vs. (22) Archbishop Hannan
7 p.m. Friday
(6) Vanderbilt Catholic has a bye
(7) Leesville has a bye
(10) Loyola College Prep vs. (23) Wright
7 p.m. Friday
(15) Buckeye vs. (18) Washington
7 p.m. Friday
(2) University Lab has a bye
(1) Franklinton has a bye
(16) West Feliciana vs. (17) Carroll
7 p.m. Friday
(9) Iota vs. (24) Assumption
7 p.m. Friday
(8) Lakeshore vs. (25) Rayne
7 p.m. Friday
(5) Iowa vs. (28) LaGrange
7 p.m. Friday
(12) Minden vs. (21) Wossman
7 p.m. Friday
(13) Brusly vs. (20) South Beauregard
7 p.m. Friday
(4) Franklin Parish has a bye
(3) Jennings has a bye
(14) Opelousas vs. (19) Bastrop
7 p.m. Friday
(11) Northwest vs. (22) DeRidder
7 p.m. Friday
(6) Plaquemine vs. (27) Grant
7 p.m. Friday
(7) North DeSoto vs. (26) Woodlawn-Shreveport
7 p.m. Friday
(10) Belle Chasse vs. (23) North Vermilion
7 p.m. Friday
(15) Pearl River vs. (18) Cecilia
7 p.m. Friday
(2) Lutcher has a bye
(1) Edna Karr has a bye
(16) Hammond vs. (17) Huntington
7 p.m. Friday
(9) St. Augustine vs. (24) Carencro
7:30 p.m. Friday
(8) St. Thomas More has a bye
(5) Archbishop Rummel has a bye
(12) McDonogh vs. (21) Riverdale
7 p.m. Friday
(13) East Jefferson vs. (20) Bonnabel
7 p.m. Friday
(4) Catholic – B.R. has a bye
(3) Acadiana has a bye
(14) Brother Martin vs. (19) John Curtis Christian
3:30 p.m. Friday
(11) Jesuit vs. (22) Lafayette
7 p.m. Friday
(6) Teurlings Catholic has a bye
(7) St. Paul’s has a bye
(10) Byrd vs. (23) Woodlawn – B.R.
7 p.m. Friday
(15) Captain Shreve vs. (18) Evangel Christian Academy
7 p.m. Thursday
(2) Alexandria has a bye
(1) Neville has a bye
(16) Covington vs. (17) Barbe
7 p.m. Friday
(9) Terrebonne vs. (24) Chalmette
7 p.m. Friday
(8) Hahnville vs. (25) Bourgeois
7 p.m. Friday
(5) Mandeville vs. (28) Thibodaux
7 p.m. Friday
(12) Parkway vs. (21) West Monroe
7 p.m. Friday
(13) West Ouachita vs. (20) Denham Springs
7 p.m. Friday
(4) Central has a bye
(3) Ruston has a bye
(14) Zachary vs. (19) Sam Houston
7 p.m. Friday
(11) Dutchtown vs. (22) Walker
7 p.m. Friday
(6) Southside vs. (27) Live Oak
7 p.m. Friday
(7) Northwood vs. (26) Salmen
7 p.m. Friday
(10) Destrehan vs. (23) Ouachita Parish
7 p.m. Friday
(15) St. Amant vs. (18) Westgate
7 p.m. Friday
(2) Airline has a bye
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