Security upgrades in place at Louisiana School for the Deaf

The Louisiana School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge has installed a state-of-the art surveillance system as part of an effort to ensure the school’s 184 students are safe at the 122-acre campus. Two security guards are posted 24 hours a day to pore over live feed of activity in the hallways and common spaces of the school’s 22 buildings. The school was ordered closed last year for about a month after reports of sexual misconduct came to light, including the alleged rape of a 6-year-old girl by a 16-year-old boy on a bus chartered by the school. This 174-camera, $282,000 security system went online in November.To read The Baton Rouge Advocate article, click here.

FROM NOVEMBER 2008: The Louisiana School for the Deaf will reopen Nov. 5. The school will reopen for all students, both day students and those residing at the school. Originally, the school planned to bring back only day students initially. The state Department of Education closed the school Oct. 8 after reports of a 16-year-old male student sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl on a bus chartered by the school. The male student was charged with aggravated rape.
To read The Baton Rouge Advocate article, click here.

FROM OCTOBER 2008: Louisiana State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek has announced a tentative reopening date of Nov. 3 for the Louisiana School for Deaf, which he closed Oct. 8 after reports of sexual misconduct at the school. Pastorek plans to take a phased approach to reopening the school, allowing the children who are easier to handle to return first. Of the school’s 193 students, from 55 to 60 percent are residential students and 40 to 45 percent are day students. The Nov. 3 target date is dependent on the ability to retrain key staff and install a surveillance system, Pastorek says.
To read The Baton Rouge Advocate article, click here.

EARLIER: The state of Louisiana has temporarily closed the Louisiana School of the Deaf in Baton Rouge so that it can make security upgrades and changes to ensure the campus is a safe place for children. The action comes 11 days after a 16-year-old boy at the school allegedly sexually molested a 6-year-old girl on a bus hired by the school to take students home for the weekend. In addition, five people — three of them current or former school employees — were arrested between November 2007 and April for alleged sexual misconduct with juvenile students.
To read The Baton Rouge Advocate article, click here.