Smythe: Reject SB191 to Save Heritage Language Education

Louisiana’s legislators must act to protect heritage language education endangered by the current version of SB 261, writes French immersion educator Lindsay Smythe.

Des élèves du programme d’immersion française à l’École primaire Têche à Cecilia dans la paroisse de Saint-Martin de la Louisiane (Drake Leblanc, Télé-Louisiane)

Lindsay Smythe Doucet, Contributing Author - Sunset, Louisiana

This op-ed is adapted from a letter sent by Lindsay Smythe, a seasoned French language teacher and the current director of one of the newest French immersion schools in Louisiana. She encourages language education supporters in Louisiana to contact their Representatives directly via email or the LFLTA advocacy form. The views expressed are her own. Télé-Louisiane is working with legislators, community partners, and French language educators to legislatively protect language education in the TOPS framework.

As a foreign language educator and one of your constituents, I write to ask our elected representatives in the Louisiana’s House of Representatives to formally oppose Senate Bill 191, which would change the curriculum requirements which grant eligibility for TOPS to allow computer science/coding to count as a world language/foreign language requirement. I urge the House to reject this bill as is unless amendments are put in place to protect world language programs in our State.  

My name is Lindsay Smythe, and I’ve been an educator for 17 years, first in Cameron Parish and then in Lafayette Parish. For the last eight years, I was a French and English teacher at Lafayette High School, where I served as French department head and director of an academic exchange with a high school in Paris, France. As you know, I changed roles this past year and am now the principal of a French immersion elementary school in St. Landry Parish. In these roles, I have seen the benefits of second language acquisition for students, and I am deeply concerned about the potential negative effects in the passing of SB 191. 

The Legislature and the Governor should reject in summary for the following reasons which I discuss in further detail below:

• As its name states, computer science (including coding) is a science, not a humanities. One cannot simply replace the other. If computer science is deemed important enough to allow for TOPS, it should be listed in science electives or computer science skills should be added to graduation requirements.

• As one of the only states with a governmental agency to preserve bilingualism in our state (CODOFIL), and in a state where tourism is the 4th highest employer, it would be counterproductive to lower our population of bilingual speakers. 

• With the bill written as-is, districts could simply close all foreign language departments. In a state (and nation) where teachers are leaving the profession at a high rate, the last thing we need to do is endanger the jobs of those who have chosen to stay. It is also a detriment for students, as students who take computer science would lack the language requirements to apply to most universities in the United States. 

• Computer science is already offered in many Louisiana high schools, and students can take it as an elective to graduate (both those in TOPS and Jumpstart pathways). In a nation where students are already lagging behind in second languages, we should not be removing this requirement as an option.

Computer science/coding is a science, not a humanities. 

This legislation proceeds that the study of computer coding and world languages is the same and that one can be substituted for another. Code.org, an organization dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools, formally opposes legislation like this that would allow students to opt out of foreign language for coding. To quote Hadi Partovi, Code.org's CEO, "The only people who would suggest that computer science is akin to learning a foreign language have never coded before." The CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), Richard Culatta, released a statement on June 8th, 2021 further emphasizing that, "We must strengthen world language instruction and allow students to learn world languages and also about the cultures from which they arise, which is key to creating inclusive school communities. I urge state legislatures and the US Congress to rethink efforts to recategorize coding and computer science courses as a world language." 

Foreign languages courses teach far more skills than the language itself. The study of foreign languages not only broadens students’ perspectives of the world, but also imparts a more profound understanding of their own cultures. It additionally increases students’ skills in the use of English. It is often the foreign language classroom where students gain the greatest understanding of grammar and expansion of their vocabulary.  The study of cultures in language classes gives a greater understanding of one’s own culture and appreciation for a wide range of other subjects, including art, music, cuisine, film, science, and philosophy.  

Bilingualism is important for business. 

Language study benefits all students as evidenced by decades of research showing improved overall academic achievement and enhanced cognitive abilities of those who study a second language. According to the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism website, the tourism industry is the 4th highest employer in our state, and without proper second language skills, we risk hurting a major industry in our state. Additionally, there is a wealth of data showing employers need workers with language skills, including employers here in Louisiana. A 2019 report from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, entitled "Making Language Our Business," found that 9 out of 10 US employers rely on employees with world languages skills, and 1 in 4 employers lost business due to lack of world language skills. 

Both teacher jobs and university-bound students will be at risk. 

If Computer Science is allowed to replace foreign languages as an elective, it also means that districts or individual schools will be allowed to opt to close entire foreign language departments as long as they offer computer science. Additionally, four-year universities (both in and outside of Louisiana) require at least two years of a foreign language, and though a student may be able to graduate under this new legislation, they would be unable to use Computer Science as a substitute for university admissions. Even if Louisiana changes its TOPS requirement, it has no power over other states. 

I hope you will recognize that SB191 presents a false choice between two unrelated disciplines that would limit opportunities for Louisiana's students to develop skills and understanding they need more than ever in today's world and workplace. The passage of this legislation would be a direct disservice to all students of Louisiana (and Louisiana as a whole),  and I respectfully ask that you reject this bill in the House, as well as any others that would weaken the world language requirement for TOPS.

Lindsay Smythe is French immersion educator and avocate for heritage language education in Louisiana. She was born in Cameron, LA and currently resides in Sunset with professional experiences in both the Lafayette Parish and Cameron Parish Public Schools. She is a graduate of LSU and has been a student an dSainte-Anne’

PAC Elementary Parents File Lawsuit Alleging Violations of US, Louisiana Constitutions in Closure Decision

In a complaint filed Friday with the Eastern District of Louisiana, the parents argue the school closure is arbitrary, discriminatory on the basis of race, language, and national origin, and thus unlawful.

- Four current Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary students protest the school’s closure outside the Terrebonne Parish School Board with Pointe-au-Chien Tribal elders Donald and Theresa Dardar on March 16, 2021.

Will McGrew, CEO & Editor in Chief, Télé-Louisiane

Twelve parents of current Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary students, all of whom are Native American and members of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe filed a lawsuit against Terrebonne Parish School Board, its president Gregory Harding, and its superintendent Phillip Martin in Federal Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana alleging illegal racial, linguistic, and national origin discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, and Article 1: Section 3 and Article 12: Section 4 of the Louisiana Constitution, failure to adhere to the requirements of Louisiana’s Immersion School Choice Act, and violation of the State’s public trust doctrine in causing environmental endangerment of a coastal community

The parents, represented by francophone lawyers Louis Koerner of New Orleans and Jimmy Domengeaux of Lafayette, asked the court for urgent injunctive relief to prevent the closure and sale of the school for the 2021-22 school year. Koerner and Domengeaux likewise represent parent Anne Ogden in her ongoing litigation at St. Tammany Parish School Board for its three-time failure to follow the requirements of the State’s Immersion School Choice Act to open a French Immersion program. Domengeaux is the son of James Domengeaux, former U.S. Representative and founder of CODOFIL, the state agency for the promotion of French.

The legal filing constitutes a serious escalation of the efforts of the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe and the Pointe-aux-Chênes bayou community as well as their allies to fight back against the most recent chapter in what they argue is a long pattern and practice of racial and linguistic discrimination against Louisiana-French-speaking Native American and Cajun students in the area. The news coincides with the final few weeks of school at Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary where teachers have been instructed to prioritize packing boxes at the expense of teaching students according to a community member with direct knowledge of the school’s operations.

Movers are expected at the school on or before June 21, 2021, according to the same community member and two additional sources. All three individuals chose to speak anonymously for fear of retaliation from School Board officials dead-set on closing and selling the school regardless of community backlash—and despite any clear rationale behind the decision. The plaintiffs and their lawyers fear that an expedited sale may be in the works to generate quick cash this summer from what the parents view as an irresponsible sale of an indispensable community pillar.

The absence of any documented financial or other justification is a central focus of the legal arguments made by PAC parents in their emergency filing to prevent the closure and sale of the school in federal court. The plaintiffs point to the integration era and specifically the case Hall v. St. Helena Parish School Board decided by the Eastern District to argue that although the School Board has the general authority to close and consolidate schools, in exercising that power it must do so neutrally, impartially, and without bias. As the court ruled in 1961 in a decision affirmed by the Supreme Court, “absent a reasonable basis for so classifying, a state cannot close the public schools in one area while, at the same time, it maintains schools elsewhere with public funds.”

- Parent Samantha Boudreaux holds a sign to Save PAC at the protest against the closure and sale of the school on April 1, 2021.

In the case of Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary, the School Board’s burden of proof is even higher under existing federal jurisprudence in the view of the PAC Elementary parents and their lawyers as Native students were denied access to the school for decades by the School Board until a federal court order forced integration. As in the case of the Helena Parish precedent and dozens of other integration lawsuits, they say it is on the School Board to clearly demonstrate its closure decision does not represent further discrimination against the majority-native students population—a difficult proposition given the complaint’s evidence of discriminatory intent and impact.

Specifically, the complaint details evidence of intentional racial discrimination behind the school closure decision by looking to the few rationales publicly provided by School Board members, asserting, “[one] school board member, Vice President Maybelle Trahan, specifically cited the racial composition of the school as a motivation. In particular, she expressed that she had felt socially isolated as a result of attending the school as a child [but] ignored the success of students who have attended PAC Elementary School [and] that PAC Elementary today is a racially integrated school with a critical mass of both white Cajun and Native American students proportionally reflective of the surrounding community.”

Furthering the point, the complaint later concludes: “While consolidating schools to achieve racial integration is a legitimate objective of local school boards, targeting an already-integrated school like PAC Elementary for its majority-Native racial composition (consistent with the composition of its surrounding community) constitutes illegal racial discrimination, particularly when the most segregated majority-white schools under TPSB’s supervision have mostly not been consolidated for the purpose of desegregation.”

Beyond intentional discrimination, the parents believe the clear disparate impacts inflicted by the decision on PAC Elementary’s students are sufficient evidence to enforce an injunction on the closure and sale of the school. As the complaint outlines, the closure of the school displaces PAC’s students, disrupts their learning, particularly for disabled students, deprives their majority-Native bayou town of a community school, and concentrates a large population of students at Montegut Elementary, a school that they allege has inferior facilities vis-à-vis PAC Elementary.

Linguistic discrimination is the second major focus of the complaint—as it is prohibited by the 14th amendement of the US Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as well as by the particularly strong protections for linguistic and cultural rights added to the the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 to compensate for historic de facto and de jure discrimination against Louisiana French speakers. With that historical context, the parents—whose first language and/or parents’ first language is Louisiana French—say the denial of two state-sanctioned requests for French immersion and the subsequent closure of the school with its majority of French-speaking families represents discrimination against speakers of Indian, Cajun, or other dialects of Louisiana French—of particular national origins.

- CODOFIL Executive Director Peggy Feehan and La Fondation Louisiane Founder and Chair William Arceneaux and Vice Chair Philippe Gustin during a day of French-language legislative advocacy, including around PAC Elementary, April 21, 2021.

Community members are particularly frustrated that the School Board refuses to accept financial or other support from the community, the State, or allies to keep the School open. Indeed, after State Representative and Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee spearheaded an effort to allocate $1 million in the state budget to reopen PAC as a French immersion school, Pointe-au-Chien Tribal Council Member Geneva Leboeuf and PAC Elementary mom and plaintiff Shana Rae Dardar said the School Board President and Superintendent have still avoided and thwarted efforts to keep the school open without sharing any financial analysis conducted by the School Board justifying the decision. Parents argue the School Board’s position to reject this funding is indefensible to taxpayers as the funding means that the Legislature has exceptionally provided over 70% of PAC Elementary’s $1.4 million annual budget, representing a significant infusion of resources and thereby freeing up funds for other uses by the School and the District.

Télé-Louisiane is working with the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe, the broader Pointe-aux-Chênes community, and relevant public, private, and community partners to ensure the linguistic and cultural rights of French-speaking communities in Terrebonne Parish are protected. Contact us at info@telelouisiane.com to share information that may be helpful to this effort.

Terrebonne School Board Votes to Close Only School in Pointe-Aux-Chênes Bayou Community

Despite an outcry of complaints from the PAC Tribe, community, and their allies and no specific justification for the decision, the School Board voted 6-3 to close the School.

- Parents, community members, Tribal leaders, and allies gathered to protest against the final vote to close Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary, Terrebonne Parish School Board, April 13, 2021.

Will McGrew, CEO & Editor in Chief, Télé-Louisiane

The Terrebonne Parish School Board voted 6-3 to close the Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary School, a decades-only community school serving students predominantly from the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe and other Cajun and Indian French speaking families in one of the five bayous of Terrebonne Parish. The School Board members did not provide any specific financial or numerical reasoning for their decision despite the outpouring of concern from community members, researchers, and state officials on the potential economic, cultural, and educational harms of the decision, which now makes Pointe-Aux-Chênes the only bayou in the parish without a school.

In public comments before the April 13 vote, community members argued that the closure decision is the most recent chapter in the School Board’s long history of neglect and discrimination in dealing with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe as well other Indian-French-speaking Tribes in the Parish, pointing out that Cajun French families have also faced denigration of their language and culture in the region. The Pointe-au-Chien and other Native Americans in the area were initially prohibited from attending Pointe-Aux-Chênes, and following integration, they were banned from speaking their native Indian French language. Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw confirmed her community’s shared historical struggles as well as their support for access to Indian French immersion programs for all Native students in the parish.

- Community member Andy Metzger reads the LA State House Resolution urging the Terrebonne Parish School Board to save Pointe-Aux-Chênes, Terrebonne Parish School Board, April 13, 2021.

In recent years, the Pointe-Aux-Chênes school has been the site of ongoing efforts to keep the unique bayou community’s heritage alive. Parents and community members are heavily involved in focusing the educational and social experience of the school on the town’s unique Louisiana, Cajun, and Indian French culture and community, participating in the Indian Education Program and twice petitioning for the opening of a French immersion program at the school under the requirements of state law. The School Board failed to meet its legal requirements to open a program both times, providing no reason for this abdication of its duty.

While School Board members made general references to fiscal sustainability, community members and allies believe that the closure decision will actually engender a loss of both public funding and economic activity in the Pointe-aux-Chênes community and the broader parish. Indeed, Pointe-au-Chien Tribal Council Member Geneva LeBoeuf and other parents emphasized that a transition to immersion usually increases enrollment and thus funding and likewise comes with a package of additional funding from the State and international governments. These facts were confirmed by Peggy Feehan, the Executive Director of CODOFIL (the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana), who had received direction from Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser to work with the School Board to keep Pointe-aux-Chênes open and turn it into a French immersion school. Nungesser likewise sent a formal letter urging the School Board to reconsider its closure decision.

On a broader scale, former state Senator Reggie Dupree, born and raised in Pointe-aux-Chênes, explained that the federal and state governments have just begun investing millions of dollars to protect the bayous around Pointe-aux-Chênes, specifically including the community around the school, notably the Morganza-to-the-Gulf Hurricane Protection System which received its first funding in January. Pointe-aux-Chênes, resident and Pointe-aux-Chênes Elementary grandmother Sheri Neil noted on the other hand that the local recreation department and the State Department of Wildlife and Fisheries have also invested greatly to make the community more livable and attractive in recent years. Dupree argued that a decision to close the school and preemptively forsake the Pointe-Aux-Chênes residential community would endanger future efforts to gain desperately needed federal support to protect Terrebonne Parish’s many coastal communities.

- The final vote to close Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary School is recorded, Terrebonne Parish School Board, April 13, 2021.

Community members feel that in voting to close Pointe-Aux-Chênes without feeling the need to justify their decision, the School Board has essentially sanctioned the ongoing deterioration of the social and economic fabric of the Pointe-aux-Chênes community. As Neil argued—and as was confirmed by several scholarly experts who spoke in defense of the Tribe—a school is a key pillar in maintaining a safe, healthy, and vibrant small town community. While Ford and Dehart critiqued the hastiness of the decision, its devastating community impact, and the numerous possibilities for saving the School, School Board members LaGarde, Harding, Benoit, Solet, Hamner, and Trahan voted to support school closure, seemingly unconcerned wtih the dramatic implications of removing this cultural, educational, and economic pillar of the Pointe-Aux-Chênes community.

Before voting to close the school, Vice President MayBelle N. Trahan offered a few words in Louisiana French, her native language, without indicating whether the School Board had any imminent plans to prevent the language’s likely death by teaching it to the next generation. In a similar vein, Voisin asked that his colleagues seriously consider an immersion program now that the decision has been made to close the School. Such commitments have been offered to the Parish’s Indian, Cajun French, and Creole speaking residents numerous times over the years, but as in the past, no specifics were provided. Télé-Louisiane live-streamed the portion of the School Board Meeting agenda devoted to the Superintendent’s proposal to consolidate Pointe-Aux-Chênes with Montegut Elementary.

Just before the School Board vote, at the urging of Speaker Pro Tempore Tanner Magee, a representative from the area, the Louisiana State House had unanimously passed a resolution urging the School Board to save Pointe-Aux-Chênes—at the potential risk of losing COVID-19 relief funds. While this resolution was insufficient for convincing the School Board, the Tribe and community members stated they will exhaust their legislative, legal, and other remedies to ensure Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary’s building continues to be used by and for their community and secure access to Indian French immersion for their students.

Will McGrew, CEO, Télé-Louisiane with reporting from correspondent Sara Guillot

Terrebonne School Board to Close School Serving the French-Speaking Pointe-au-Chien Native Tribe, Causing Community Concern

Community members have mobilized to protest the move, arguing that closure will harm students as well as the unique culture, community, and economic livelihood of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe and broader Pointe-Aux-Chênes community.

- Laurencia Billiot, Pointe-au-Chien Tribe member, Protest at Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary, April 1, 2021

Will McGrew, CEO & Editor in Chief, Télé-Louisiane

The Terrebonne Parish School Board announced via its Superintendent the proposed closure of Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary School in the lead-up to a March 16, 2021 school board committee meeting, due to the assertion that the school is not sustainable—without specifying the metrics or analyses that resulted in the conclusion. The proposal was approved in committee with a final vote to confirm the change scheduled for next Tuesday, April 13, 2021, at the next full board meeting. 

Patty Ferguson Bohnee, Clinical Professor of Law at Arizona State University and an attorney for the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe, said that prior notice was not given to parents or teachers, who have likewise not been informed on the details or criteria behind the closure. Parents have also not been consulted on how the District will maintain its legal obligations to serve PAC’s Native, French-speaking, low-income, and disabled students over the coming year. The dearth of community consultation on behalf of the School District has led many in the community to deem the move arbitrary if not discriminatory.

Bohnee stated that there are at least 99 students enrolled in Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary according to the most up-to-date numbers despite the effects of the pandemic and recent natural disasters on student enrollment.  The majority of these students are Native American from Indian French-speaking families, predominantly from Pointe-au-Chien as well as Isle-De-Jean-Charles, while most of the other students are from Cajun French-speaking families in the area. The State reports that approximately 90% of the students at Pointe-Aux-Chênes are from low-income or disadvantaged backgrounds with 15% receiving special education services as of 2015.

Indian French is both used to refer to the dialect of Louisiana French spoken in the bayou parishes of Louisiana especially Terrebonne and Lafourche; however, it can also be an umbrella term to describe the Louisiana French spoken by Native American tribes in Louisiana including the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe currently located in Avoyelles Parish. Like all dialects of Louisiana French that in many cases vary with ethnicity and region, the similarities across them are relatively overwhelming.

Comparing Bohnee’s numbers to those the School District offered, Pointe-Aux-Chênes has roughly 20-30 fewer students than Montegut Elementary, the majority-white school that the School Board has decided to leave open and where the PAC students will be sent in the likely case of their community school’s closure. According to Vicki Bonvillain, United Houma Nation member and former member of Terrebonne Parish School Board for the District representing Pointe-Aux-Chênes, the School Board has still not provided any reasonable or fair basis for the decision to close Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary, especially in light of the fact that Montegut is not wheelchair-accessible whereas Pointe-Aux-Chênes is.

- Traditional Chief Albert Naquin, Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe (holding drum) and Second Chairman Donald Dardar, Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe (red shirt with sunglasses) among other community members, Pointe-Aux-Chênes, April 1, 2021

Despite not sharing specifics, the basic rationale provided by Martin and some School Board members to justify the closing of the decades-old community school was the declining enrollment at the school and the funding required to maintain the school—concerns that seem somewhat universal in a parish where many schools are struggling in the aftermath of the pandemic and recent hurricanes as well as economic, cultural, and environmental changes. Bohnee and other Pointe-Aux-Chênes stakeholders push back, arguing that the school receives significant federal and state funds due to its proportionally significant populations of Native and disabled students. Furthermore, the School District has not cooperated in response to outreach from PAC community members in their efforts to increase enrollment and sustain the school for the long term through fundraising, public relations efforts, or programmatic changes.

In particular, despite the community’s natural compatibility with a heritage language immersion program in the view of Shana Rae Dardar and other parents interviewed, the School District has thwarted parents, teachers, and community members’ efforts to increase enrollment through a transition to French immersion. 

There are currently 35 French immersion programs in Louisiana enrolling 5597 students compared to 26 schools with 2692 in Spanish immersion and 2 schools with 152 students in Mandarin immersion according to statistics from the Louisiana Department of Education for the 2019-2020 school year. Immersion education in Louisiana can either be administered as an option among two or several curricular tracks in a school or in the context a full-immersion school in which immersion is the exclusive curricular model.

As the most extensive network of French immersion schools in the United States, Louisiana’s immersion community has stood out as one of the gems of Louisiana’s public education system. Michelle Haj-Broussard, Associate Professor of Education at the University of Louisiana – Lafayette and the President of the Louisiana Consortium of Immersion Schools, said, “French immersion has worked in a variety of schools in Louisiana since the early 1980s, not mention in Canada since the late 1960s.” 

Underlying the benefits of multilingual education, Haj-Broussard, added, “immersion programs that are a track within a traditional English-language school are clearly successful based on substantial research since the 1970s. More importantly, if the entire school is converted to French immersion, the results show that the school will be even more successful.”

Beyond academic benefits, Bohnee says that the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe as well as other Native Americans in the area expect their school to be culturally responsive to the unique needs of the students it serves. Incorporating cultural context in education “affirms the backgrounds of the students, considers their cultures as strengths, and reflects and utilizes students’ learning styles,” according to researchers referenced by Bohnee.

She added, “Whether they take the form of immersion programs, dual-language programs, or a combination, these efforts are essential to (re)connecting our American Indian youths to the full scope of their identity.”

Bohnee, Dardar, and others in the community believe the development of a culturally informed immersion program would likewise respond to critical needs of students at the school. Haj-Broussard agreed, saying “immersion schools in particular improve outcomes for students who historically struggle academically for a variety of reasons. The International School of Louisiana in New Orleans and FLAIM (Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet) in Baton Rouge are two good examples of these benefits.

- Parents, students, and community members attend the protest at PAC Elementary on April 1, 2021.

In recent years, Pointe-Aux-Chênes parents twice mobilized successful petitions for the opening of a French immersion program in Terrebonne Parish, once in 2018 and again in 2020, following the necessary steps for opening a program under Louisiana’s Immersion School Choice Act passed in 2013. The School District both times failed to meet its requirements under the law to sufficiently consult with parents and open a program, according to attorneys Louis Koerner and Jimmy Domengeaux. The School District likewise denied similar efforts by the native-French-speaking United Houma Nation and the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, according to Bonvillain,and Geneva Lebeouf, another Pointe-Au-Chien Tribe member and community leader. 

Peggy Feehan, the Executive Director of CODOFIL (a state agency responsible for keeping Louisiana French alive, especially in Native American, Creole, and Cajun communities), says, “CODOFIL is able and willing to work with Terrebonne Parish in helping them establish a French Immersion program, and we are looking forward to it. We think it would be an incredible opportunity to strengthen the talent base and economic potential of the parish.”

PAC parents and community members believe they have evidence that converting PAC Elementary to a French immersion school would be more than sufficient to increase enrollment and save the school. In both petition drives, they received signatures from a significant number of parents of students at Montegut Elementary and other nearby schools who said they would transfer their child to PAC for the specific reason of enrolling in a French immersion program, according to Lebeouf, Bohnee. This is consistent with evidence from other parishes demonstrating increases in academic performance, enrollment, and school funding after conversion of a public school to partial or full French immersion.

Underlying how critical the next few years will be in keeping Louisiana’s unique linguistic and cultural fabric alive, Coco Orgeron, mother of Ed Orgeron, head football coach at LSU and resident of Cutoff, Louisiana, says, “If you don’t teach the kids now, our language is all gone. This is your last chance.”

Despite claims to the contrary by the School District, Pointe-Aux-Chénes parents, teachers, students, and residents point to the fact that French immersion programs come with funding from the State and international partner governments—as Haj-Broussard and Feehan pointed out as well—making them a win-win investment for local school districts. The French Government’s role in supporting Louisiana’s French immersion schools was recently re-affirmed for the next four years at the re-signing of the France-Louisiana accords at the Cabildo last month.

The struggles of the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe as well as those of the Grand Caillou, Isle de Jean Charles, and Houma Indians for French immersion schools echo the demands of Cajun, Creole, and other Louisiana communities for heritage linguistic and cultural educational across the State. 

In St. Tammany, the School Board denied three times the successful petitions for French immersion organized by 25+ local parents. The parents have since attempted to litigate the case given their strict adherence to the Immersion School Choice Act, but the lack of enforcement mechanisms in the law have failed to provide them with legal recourse, sanctioning an illegal violation of their parental rights, in the view of the parents as well as their attorneys Koerner and Domengeaux. 

Music teacher and member of the Louisiana French band Poisson Rouge Kylie Griffin in Vermilion Parish has likewise attempted to petition for French immersion; however, she has faced significant obstacles from the local School District. Furthermore, since there is already a French immersion program in her parish, it is unclear whether demonstrating demand from additional parents would facilitate the opening of a new program, pointing to the need for legislative changes to strengthen the rights of students and families under the law.

- EJ Grabert Jr., a native Cajun French speaker, and his wife drove from Thibodeaux to support the Tribe’s efforts to save PAC Elementary given their shared support for keeping Louisiana French alive, Pointe-Aux-Chênes, April 1, 2021.

Tribe leader Chuckie Verdin and other members of his generation have emphasized that the decision to close PAC Elementary represents the final episode in a long period of discrimination against the Pointe-Au-Chien Indian tribe and other Native American tribes in the region. The Tribe members were initially prohibited from attending PAC Elementary until a civil rights suit forced integration of the school. Later, after they were admitted, they were prohibited from speaking their native language Indian French in addition facing other forms of bias. Verdin has specific memories of being called names and facing discrimination when he first attended 3rd grade at PAC. 

The Pointe-Aux-Chênes school community also serves the French-speaking Isle-De-Jean-Charles Native Americans. This Tribe has experienced many of the same difficulties as the PAC. They are also considered by some academic and media sources to be the first community subject to resettlement due to climate change in the United States. Nevertheless, Bohnee and other tribal members argue that Pointe-Aux-Chênes contend there is no environmental justification for closing PAC Elementary, approximately 10 miles to the North of Isle-De-Jean Charles and inside the state and parish’s levee protection system. Instead, the position of both Tribes, shared by community members, is that the decision to close PAC Elementary creates further economic and cultural harm to a profoundly endangered community.

Bonvillain believes that with the only Native member gone from the School Board, Terrebonne Parish School District has begun a series of closures of Native American schools. The United Houma Nation has sued the Terrebonne Parish School Board for what they allege to be an unauthorized, illegal sale of a historic Indian school. A UHN member, Bonvillain met with Philipp Martin, the Superintendent, to see how many more students would need to enroll in Pointe-Aux-Chênes to avoid closure; after finding a significant fraction of that number, Martin moved the goal posts, positing a different threshold at their next meeting, according to Bonvillain.

Despite not having met with representatives from CODOFIL and the Louisiana Department of Education as would be appropriate under the Immersion School Choice Act, Martin stated at the School Board committee meeting where the closure was provisionally approved that the size of Pointe-Aux-Chênes Elementary was an obstacle to opening a French immersion program. Bohnee, Bonvillain, and others have disagreed, saying there is no still no guarantee that the School District would act in good faith to create an immersion program at Montegut Elementary or elsewhere given their repeated failures to respond to parent requests over the past years in several communities across the parish.

Furthermore, advocates and experts point out that Pointe-Aux-Chênes is still a great candidate for partially or fully transitioning to French immersion. According to Haj-Broussard, “school size is not an obstacle to the creation of a French immersion program.”

“In fact, some of the most successful French immersion schools, such as those in Orleans Parish, began with just a handful of grades and student populations that are even smaller than PAC. Lycée Français is a notable case.” Haj-Broussard added, “Myrtle Place Elementary is another great example of how a traditional public school can transition to immersion. In PAC’s case, younger students could immediately begin immersion whereas older students would initially receive French enrichment classes as all grades gradually transition to full immersion.”

- PAC Elementary parents Mary and Alton Dupree and their children protest PAC’s closure and collect signatures for the opening of a French immersion program, Pointe-Aux-Chênes, Apr 1, 2021.

Members of the Pointe-Aux-Chênes school community gathered outside of the school on April 1, 2021 to protest the school board’s proposal to consolidate PAC with Montegut Elementary. Around two dozen parents, students, and residents attended to demonstrate their solidarity. 

The community will again be gathering outside and inside the School Board meeting at 6 pm on Tuesday, April 13 at 201 Stadium Drive, Houma, LA 70360.  Organizers from the Tribe and community ask supporters to arrive at 5:00 pm to attend a press conference and protest before the School Board meeting where they want as many community members as possible to speak. 

A Fine Kettle of Crawfish: The Impact of Covid on Crawfish Season

Despite the difficulties of 2020, fishermen are optimistic about the outlook of 2021 and beyond.

David Durio at his crawfish pond in Arnaudville, Louisiana, where he owns 60 acres of ponds. Kathy Bradshaw/Télé-Louisiane

By Kathy Bradshaw

Probably more than anything else, next to the loss of life caused by Covid-19, most people are mourning the loss of social interaction and group activities. Due to the coronavirus, we have had to cancel our festivals, our parties, and our main social events—upending life as we have come to know it.

Yet, crawfisherman David Durio is cautiously optimistic about the future of crawfish this spring. He says that the forecast of mild winter is a good sign for their abundance and size. And if his catches so far are any indication, things look promising.

Last year, interruptions due to Covid-19 led him to cut his fishing season short, because all the restaurant closures took a big chunk out of his earnings. And even though he was still able to sell crawfish to grocery stores and other “essential” businesses that never shut down, as well as making private sales to individuals and families, it just wasn’t quite enough. Selling a sack or two of crawfish so a few families can each have their own backyard boils just isn’t the same as selling 450 pounds of mudbugs to several local eateries.

“I shut it down in May, mainly because the price was to the point where it was low enough for me to get out,” he said. “It wasn’t worth it for me to fish anymore.”

Durio is a small-scale crawfish farmer. He owns 60 acres of ponds in Arnaudville and catches anywhere from five to 20 sacks of crawfish a week, compared to some of the big-time farmers who might harvest as many as 400 sacks a week from 300 acres of ponds. Since Durio works full-time as an IT specialist in Laplace, fishing is more of a leisure activity, a labor of love. He does it for the joy of the catch and his appreciation of nature.

“It’s just the outdoors, the wild,” he said. “Just being out with the birds and the alligators and the snakes. The adventure. It’s the warmth of the sun on you in the summertime, and staying all bundled up during the wintertime.”

For him, crawfishing is a family business that goes back many generations: His uncle owns 200 acres of ponds and also taught crawfish management classes at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Durio himself learned the crawfish biz from his dad, who used to bring him out to the ponds, even when he was little.

Durio learned how to crawfish from his father, who began catching mudbugs in the 1980s. Kathy Bradshaw/Télé-Louisiane

“I grew up out here,” he said as he tied up a sack of freshly caught crawfish. “My dad used to take my brother and me out here every Sunday afternoon because my mom wanted to get us out of her hair. From the time I was a kid, I [fished for crawfish] on a very small scale, just to play in the ditch and stuff like that.”

He explains that his family began commercially crawfishing after a lot of local cattle farmers got out of the cattle business in the early 1980s and converted their land to ponds instead. Later, when Durio’s dad retired from crawfishing, he passed the torch to his son. Now, Durio has been at it for fun and profit for the past decade.

“About 10 years ago, my dad had retired, and he asked if I was interested in doing the crawfish ponds, and I said yeah. It was like coming back home, and I loved it. I remembered all those little weekend trips, when he would take us out here.”

During lockdown last year, while most people were cleaning out a closet or catching up on their favorite Netflix series, Durio used his spare time in quarantine to get in some more crawfishing. When his IT job went remote, he took advantage of the flexibility and good WiFi hotspot connection to work right from his crawfish ponds.

“I’d come here in the morning, and I’d log in and have my 9:00 meeting,” he said. Then, he could bait a few traps on a coffee break, or sort a few sacks of crawfish during lunch. “I was putting in an eight-hour day. I was just doing it remotely. Really remotely.”

But with Covid, sales were still down, and the communal love of crawfish was faltering—surely because the communal aspect was, in fact, being completely removed from the equation. Eating crawfish is really about the crawfish boil—the “congregation and the collaboration between the individuals, just the fun of everybody getting together,” as Durio described it. Crawfish are the glue that holds people together this time of year, and crawfish boils are a rite of passage in Louisiana. But with gatherings and group parties forbidden and risky, it just wasn’t nearly as much fun.

“It’s almost like the price went low, and come May, it was like people were burned out on crawfish,” he said.

Durio uses traps like these to catch crawfish from his gas-powered boat. Kathy Bradshaw/Télé-Louisiane

Covid didn’t only affect Durio’s business, it also really hit home. Last March, Durio’s father contracted the virus. After spending two weeks on a ventilator, the 93-year-old Durio Sr. miraculously recovered, only to pass away several weeks later due to complications. To make matters worse, Durio’s father got Covid in the nursing home where he had lived, which turned out to have the largest number of deaths of any nursing home in Louisiana.

“When he passed, the funeral was one of the first days that they actually opened up the church to a large crowd,” Durio said. “So he had one hell of a send-off. Since he was a veteran, he had the full armored guard with a 21-gun salute. The church was packed, and he deserved that.”

It’s a new year now, and we’re just beginning a brand new crawfish season. And despite the fact that the pandemic continues to drag on, not all is lost for crawfish farmers nor people who love to eat crawfish. Durio, for one, seems to be kicking off 2021 with confidence for a good season. “I think there’s a lot more hope, a lot more optimism [this year],” he said.

Even if it still isn’t safe to gather in groups, and even if most don’t feel comfortable dining indoors at a restaurant, there are still plenty of ways to enjoy both the flavor and camaraderie of crawfish, such as at a drive-thru crawfish joint.

“People will still be craving crawfish; you’re just going to get them and boil them in your backyard instead of going and getting them at the local restaurant,” Durio said.

With more restaurants now open and doing business, restaurant patronage is certainly up from last year, and so, therefore, are the sales of crawfish. For crawfish farmers, this season looks hopeful.

“I talked to the lady who runs the bait shop here, and she says, ‘Oh, the restaurants are already asking for top dollar for crawfish,’” Durio said. “So, in that aspect, it looks like it’s looking better. There’s going to be more of a demand from restaurants. We’re still going to have the private sales. We still have the grocery stores—essential businesses.”

French teacher Djibril Coulibaly will be released by ICE

The former CODOFIL teacher and Louisiana resident of 19 years will rejoin his family and avoid deportation for the time being.

(Coulibaly family photo)

Will McGrew, CEO & Editor in Chief, Télé-Louisiane

(Une version francophone de l'article est disponible icitte.)

In an email Wednesday afternoon, Djibril Coulibaly's lawyer, law professor Hiroko Kusuda confirmed that her client will soon be released from detention according to an official from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

After 19 years in Louisiana, Mr. Coulibaly had been detained by ICE in recent days as a result of visa problems that date back to his time as an immersion teacher in Saint Landry Parish where the School Board did not request the necessary renewal of his immigration status.

This decision comes after a notable mobilization of the French-speaking and educational communities of Louisiana.

Pointing to his role in the community, the executive director of CODOFIL Peggy Feehan had noted: "Although Mr. Coulibaly technically is no longer a CODOFIL teacher, he's part of our larger family, and it's sad for him to be in a situation of this nature. We hope there will be for a resolution for him, his family, and his school community."

This article will be updated with new information as it becomes available.

Old Traditions of Cane River: The Sassafras Tree and Filé

The preparation of filé from the sassafras tree is an old Creole tradition that stems from the Choctaw Indians.

John Oswald Colson, known as Oz, harvests leaves from a sassafras tree in the Kisatchie National Forest in order to make his signature filé. Courtesy of Dusty Fuqua

By Jonathan Olivier

The Creoles of Cane River, isolated between hills of Kisatchie National Forest to the west and the Red River to the east, have retained their culture with traditions that go back to the colonial period. They are a mixture of Native Americans, enslaved Africans, free people of color, and Europeans.

Surrounded by American anglophones, they spoke French or Kouri-Vini due to their proximity to Natchitoches, which was founded by French explorers in 1714 as the first permanent village in Louisiana.

"There is a lot of the language that has disappeared, but cultural traditions endure," said Dustin Fuqua, anthropologist at the Cane River National Heritage Area.

One of the cultural relics that remain is the manufacture of filé made from leaves of the sassafras tree, an ancient tradition of the Choctaw. When sassafras leaves are ground into powder, it can thicken a soup—just like okra. But, for many in Cane River, filé has always served as the base of gumbo, not okra.

After sassafras leaves are harvested, Colson and Fuqua crush them into a fine powder, known as filé. Courtesy of Dusty Fuqua

"Today, when you make a gumbo, you need flour, oil, and then you start," Fuqua said. “Way in the past, there were no ingredients like that. You’d have to use some pig lard, if you had any, or bear grease. Maybe there wasn’t any okra available out here on the frontier, but they had the sassafras tree, so they used the filé."

Fuqua said that Cane River was well known because of its quality filé. Currently, however, because of over harvesting in the area, it is difficult to find someone who still makes it locally. A few years ago Fuqua started looking to find out if there were any tradition bearers left, and he found John Oswald Colson, who most everyone in Cane River just calls Oz.

Colson started making filé when he was young, but had stopped the practice due to the lack of sassafras trees near his home in Cane River. The 85-year-old wanted to continue the tradition the old-fashioned way—by hand—and Fuqua decided to help him out. "Oz came to me and he said he wanted to continue this tradition, but he was older and he didn’t know how to do it," Fuqua said.

So, Fuqua contacted officials at Kisatchie National Forest to request access to forage for sassafras. After a green light, Fuqua and Colson began their quest, searching through the longleaf pine savannas of the forest.

Sassafras leaves are best picked in the early summer, when the foliage is new and the bugs haven’t damaged them too much. Courtesy of Dusty Fuqua

During the spring, the duo harvests sassafras leaves in order to make several batches of filé. It takes a few weeks to air-dry the leaves, and then they’ll crush them, sift them, and bottle the powder. The quality, Fuqua said, far surpasses any store-bought filé.

"The commercial process produces a brown finish without much flavor because there are probably all sorts of sticks in it," Fuqua said." Our filé smells incredible and is bright green."

Since that first forage, they continue to collect dozens of bags of sassafras every year to process in order to sell jars of filé around the state. But by continuing this tradition, it’s more than just making money. It is a way to perpetuate part of the culture of Cane River that will disappear if no one does anything.

Fuqua has hope that making filé the old-fashioned way will always be part of the culture of Louisiana, just like boucheries, Mardi Gras, or Cajun and Zydeco music.

Foreign Immersion Teachers Granted Approval to Come to Louisiana in August

The US administration will give them an exemption from the Presidential Proclamation barring foreign workers from entering the United States.

Immersion students at Teche Elementary in Cecilia, Louisiana in 2019.

By Will McGrew

After a wide-reaching effort by the French-speaking community of Louisiana and its allies around the world, the United States Department of State and the Department of Labor will grant exemptions for 70 teachers from France and other countries to receive J-1 work visas in order to teach in Louisiana’s immersion schools during the 2020-21 school year. This group of teachers includes 49 French speakers and 21 Spanish speakers.

“This is a wonderful development accomplished through the hard work of so many people. We are always fortunate to have these teachers in our state, helping connect our students to the rich heritage of the French culture here in Louisiana,” said Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, responsible for Louisiana’s authorities to develop language, culture, recreation and tourism, in a statement released today.

Presidential Proclamation 10014, which prohibits the issuing of new visas through the end of 2020, had endangered the immigration status of 73 foreign immersion teachers. Among them, 49 were contracted to teach in French immersion programs during the academic year that begins in August. There are currently more than 5,000 Louisiana students in 28 French immersion programs throughout Louisiana.

Both chambers of the State’s Legislature passed resolutions encouraging federal representatives to work with the Trump administration to provide an exemption to the proclamation. After a wave of citizen inquiries, Sen. John Kennedy (R), and Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Lafayette), among others, distributed press releases demonstrating they were working with the administration to resolve the problem—given the importance of immersion for education, culture, and language in Louisiana.

"It's such an essential element to preserving our rich French heritage — a unique characteristic found nowhere else in the country. [And] it's a critical component to driving our economy," said Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Bossier City), in an interview this morning on KVPI’s La Tasse de Café.

North Lewis Elementary in New Iberia, Louisiana in 2019.

After the proclamation was made public, Télé-Louisiane launched an online petition to request exemptions for the teachers, receiving almost 7,000 signatures in under two weeks. The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), the State Department of Education, musician Zachary Richard, the Consulate General of France in Louisiana, and numerous other organizations and individuals explained the severity of the situation to elected representatives of the State and local and international journalists—in particular, by highlighting the potential effects on more than 2,000 of Louisiana’s public schools students. The response from elected officials in Louisiana was fairly quick in the case.

"This victory is a strong demonstration of the dynamism around French education in Louisiana and the solidarity of the Francophone world. Thank you to everyone who mobilized on the ground and those who signed our petition with special gratitude to the Ambassador of France, the Honorable Philippe Étienne for his intervention," wrote Richard.

Procedures to finalize preparations for the teachers' arrival are expected in the coming weeks, but this week's decision has removed the foreign teachers’ biggest obstacle.

“Thanks to the relentless efforts of a terrific team... people here in Louisiana, including Louisiana's Senators and Representatives, as well as our international partners, notably the French Ambassador, the Honorable Mr. Philippe Étienne... our students in numerous French immersion programs will be able to continue learning in French,” said Peggy Feehan, executive director for CODOFIL.