Louisiana
Elementary school next to controversial Louisiana chemical plant to shut down next year
An elementary school a few hundred feet from an industrial plant that emits a likely cancer-causing chemical will close next year, the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board voted on Thursday, a landmark decision that follows a long push for action by environmental and community activists.
The 300 pre-kindergarteners through fourth graders who attend Fifth Ward Elementary School in Reserve will be relocated to two schools in the district.
The school board’s decision to close the school came amid a slew of legal battles involving the future of Fifth Ward Elementary, as well as the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Denka Performance Elastomer, which neighbors the elementary school, is the only facility in the country to emit chloroprene, classified as a likely carcinogen by the EPA.
The school is also in a U.S. census tract with the highest risk of cancer from air pollution in the country, according to an EPA report. The federal agency sent a letter in 2022 to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality suggesting that Black residents in the area were subjected to adverse health impacts because of Denka.
Average chloroprene emissions this August at the two fenceline monitors closest to the school were more than four times the figure the EPA cautioned against in its 2022 letter.
The Tokyo-based synthetic rubber manufacturing company makes products such as gloves and wetsuits.
The school board meeting grew tense at times, as members tussled over the future of the school and whether the planning committee that had initially approved the closure had been transparent.
Raydel Morris, who represents the district where Fifth Ward is located, opposed shuttering it, and raised concerns over the physical building being left to decay after the school closed. He added that if the impetus for closing the school was for “chemical reasons,” moving students to one of the nearby schools wouldn’t affect their risks from air pollution.
“We’re taking them from the front yard to the backyard,” he said.
Most of the heated discussions revolved around transparency and economics. The school has a declining enrollment and operates at less than 50 percent capacity, one board member noted.
But the legal battles and the nearby chemical plant loomed large. Nia Mitchell-Williams, who voted in favor of the school closure, noted that if they didn’t make a decision, the board would be leaving Fifth Ward’s future in the hands of a judge.
“That’s the real elephant in the room,” Mitchell-Williams said.
The former segregated Black school will see its final term this year, and in the 2025-2026 school year, students will either attend East St. John Preparatory or LaPlace Elementary. The motion passed on a vote 7-4.
After the closure, East St. John Preparatory will be renamed as Fifth Ward Preparatory, to preserve the name and history of the originally all-Black segregated school. Mitchell-Williams proposed this motion at the request of alumni of the school, she said.
Future of Fifth Ward
The vote comes after a federal judge in New Orleans in late October heard arguments in a desegregation case against the St. John school board. Lawyers with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund argued that Fifth Ward should be shut down and its students should be moved to LaPlace Elementary School four miles away.
While the civil rights lawyers applauded the move to shut down the school, they opposed the school board’s plan to divide the students between East St. John Preparatory Academy, a middle school, and LaPlace Elementary.
Victor Jones said that East St. John Prep is still located too close to the Denka plant and is not designed for the younger elementary school children. The Legal Defense Fund wants to see all the Fifth Ward students and faculty kept together and moved to LaPlace Elementary. The lawyers also want Fifth Ward to be shut down immediately.
“We won’t be satisfied until the school is closed,” Jones said.
Louisiana
Louisiana AG’s Office office urges people to report racist text messages
MONROE, La. (KNOE) – People across the country and here in the ArkLaMiss are reporting receiving a racist spam text message.
The text states the person has been selected to pick cotton at a plantation.
“These types of spam texts are vile, threatening and only intend to divide us,” said the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office in a statement to KNOE.
The Attorney General’s office says to contact your local FBI field office by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI or 1-800-225-5324 or visiting FBI.gov/tips.
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Louisiana
Special session regarding tax reform Wednesday
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Governor Jeff Landry and the state legislature held the special session regarding tax reform on Wednesday afternoon.
The focus of the special session is to restructure the outdated tax system and grow the economy. The goal is to move towards a flat income tax for individuals and businesses and expand state sales tax to more services and items.
The current structure has led to impending budget shortfalls, leading to cuts in other key areas like higher education and healthcare.
November 25 is the deadline to complete the proposed tax reforms with then some measures going to a vote of the people.
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Louisiana
Local business addresses food insecurity in Northeast Louisiana
MONROE, La. (KNOE) — The Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana has seen an increase in the number of people in need.
The food bank serves 12 parishes across the region and helps around 25,000 people each month. Officials with the food bank say they have seen an increase in the number of people in need since 2023, especially around the holiday season.
A local business, DSLD Homes is hosting “Take A Bite Out of Hunger” food drive, to help meet the needs of people in NELA during the holiday season.
“Everyone doesn’t have a family or friends to rely on when they are in need so we decided to go the extra mile by hosting this food drive. We are asking for community members to donate items like nonperishables and canned goods, so that no one goes without a meal this Thanksgiving season,“ says DSLD Homes representative Tyler Sandifer.
Donations can be dropped off at the Somerset Park model home at 508 Southern Grv Rd. in Sterlington or at the Traditions model home at 1439 W Martin Luther King Jr Ave. in Grambling.
The food drive ends on Nov. 22.
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