After a lawsuit with the Terrebonne Parish School Board, the Tribe purchased the former Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary building to serve as a home for École Pointe-au-Chien.
Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary School was closed in 2021, but will be renovated and house École Pointe-au-Chien. Drake LeBlanc/Télé-Louisiane
By Jonathan Olivier
On Friday, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe purchased from the Terrebonne Parish School Board the building that once housed the now shuttered Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary, according to tribal officials. Officials with the tribe plan to allow the building to be used as the eventual home for École Pointe-au-Chien, a new French immersion school that opened in August.
Patty Ferguson Bohnee, a tribal member and attorney for the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, noted that the one-dollar sale of the building is believed to be part of a settlement of a two-year federal legal battle between the School Board and parents of the former elementary school. Officials with the Terrebonne Parish School Board voted to close Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary–with one of the highest Indigenous student populations in the state–in April 2021, despite pleas from the community and state officials like Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee to allow the school to remain open as a revamped French immersion program.
A lawsuit initiated by 12 parents from the tribe in June 2021 alleged that, by closing the school and refusing, the school board had violated the Civil Rights Act, as well as the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and Article 1 of the Louisiana Constitution, by discriminating on the basis of language and thus national origin against American Indian and Cajun students in the community. In addition, the parents alleged, the school board had failed to adhere to the requirements of Louisiana’s Immersion School Choice Act.
After a year of public outcry from members of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, as well as numerous activists and French-language stakeholders, the Louisiana Legislature voted unanimously in spring 2022 to fund and open École Pointe-au-Chien as a public state special school similar to the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA). The school has an independent board, separate from Terrebonne Parish School Board, whose members were appointed by the Native Tribes of the bayou region of Southeastern Louisiana as well state officials, including the Gov. John Bel Edwards. It now serves as the first French immersion program in Terrebonne Parish.
"It is historic news that our Tribe now owns the school building where so many of our Tribal members and ancestors were prohibited from enrolling and later punished for speaking our heritage Indian French language,” Ferguson Bonhee said. “We look forward to making the building available as a final home for École Pointe-au-Chien upon its reconstruction and know it will continue to be a pillar for keeping the French language and culture of our Indian and Cajun community alive for generations."
École Pointe-au-Chien is temporarily housed at the Vision Christian Center in Bourg, offering grades kindergarten and first. School officials said the program will eventually move to the Knights of Columbus building down the road in Pointe-aux-Chênes while the former school is renovated. Each year, officials plan to add a grade, eventually offering up to the 5th grade. Renovations on the Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary buildings are expected to take two years, after which point the property will become the homebase for École Pointe-au-Chien
“This is truly a historic day in the fight for Louisiana’s endangered coast, culture, and French language,” said Will McGrew, École Pointe-au-Chien Board President and Télé-Louisiane CEO. “So many people said it would be impossible to open a Bayou French immersion school in PAC. Now we know that not only will we have the school the community has fought for, it will also be housed on Tribal land.”
McGrew added, “In addition to the Tribe's leadership, this victory could not have happened without Jimmy Domengeaux, the parents’ determined pro bono lawyer and the nephew of CODOFIL founder James Domengeaux.”