No choice for students

Published 12:00 am Friday, September 5, 2003

By LEONARD GRAY-Staff Reporter

PLEASURE BEND – Parents of school children in the isolated St. John Parish community of Pleasure Bend were told a week ago by the school superintendent that he had no choice – their children would be attending St. John public schools on Monday.

Supt. Michael Coburn was confronted with an assembly of angry parents Tuesday, a scant two months after having arrived at a tentative compromise on busing children to St. James Parish public schools.

The agreement was a one-year moratorium to keep the 35-year-old arrangement in place, while Coburn and St. James Superintendent Dr. P. Edward Cancienne hammered out a written agreement for the future.

Coburn had said he would report back to the community’s parents in January 2004.

That was all knocked into a cocked hat, Coburn said, by an Aug. 25 article in The Advocate in Baton Rouge on the issue, coming at a time when St. John public schools is trying to get out from under a U.S. Justice Department desegregation order dating back more than 30 years.

Coburn said he is going to Washington D.C. on Sept. 15-19 to persuade the Justice Department that the school system has met all requirements and ask for unitary status, returning full control to the local education authority.

The Advocate article, however, was about the Pleasure Bend situation where nearly every child in the community was being bused by St. John to a Vacherie Primary school in St. James Parish, where older students would catch St. James buses to other schools.

Lawyers for the school district, with their office in Baton Rouge, saw the article and immediately called Coburn, explaining this could kill the deal with Justice.

Meanwhile, the 19 families in the village of 264 people were told their 34 students, who began their school year attending St. James Parish schools, need to get ready for East St. John Elementary and East St. John High schools, come Monday.

Prior to Labor Day weekend, the last word Pleasure Bend parents had on the issue was a July 31 letter from Coburn, in which he stated: “This school year, St. John the Baptist Parish will continue to honor the transportation agreement of years past. We will provide transportation for your children to the schools closest to your homes. I just cannot guarantee how long this service will continue.”

Turned out, it lasted a month, barely into the start of school.

One mother was extremely distressed. Rebecca Guilliot, who recently moved to the area, has a son who began kindergarten that very day. “It was very traumatic,” she said. Now, her child will have to leave that school after less than a week and go to another, 20 miles away. “He’s not going to St. John schools,” she pledged.

Coburn expressed his sympathy, but he stressed there was no other choice for him. Parents, though, insisted they do have a choice – educational custody.

Educational custody would allow the parent to assign such custody to a St. James Parish resident, commonly a relative, for the purpose of attending school in a different school district.

Without this documentation, any Pleasure Bend students would be turned away at the school door.

One parent volunteered to pick up the necessary forms from the St. James School Board office in Lutcher. Two others said they would talk to attorneys to have them visit later in the week to notorize the forms.

Without these, the parents would have no choice, as St. James Parish can not longer accept the students without this custodial form.

Parents continued to express their dismay, with Norman Kunsky declaring that to send white children to a predominantly black school would place the children in danger. “I’m not going to allow you to hang a target on our children’s back,” he told Coburn.

Coburn replied the children would be as safe there as anywhere. Kunsky announced plans to seek a restraining order from federal court, but reported on Thursday it would take more than a week to manage.

Another victim in the matter is Geraldine Granier, the school bus driver who has now lost her job, transporting students to the St. James school. She was offered another route, but turned it down, as it would involve her traveling more than 20 miles before she could pick up the first student, where reimbursements would begin. Granier had been driving for seven years, taking over from her mother-in-law, Lydia Granier, who drove for at least 30 years.

Herman Granier, Lydia’s husband, recalled when he attended a one-room school in Pleasure Bend nearly 70 years ago. However, Coburn said, to locate a school facility there would take much too long, even to place a double-wide trailer for a K-12 school for the students in the town.

Resident Larry Brock told Coburn the superintendent had acted “short-sighted” by not bringing the issue to the parents months ago and observed to the parents, “The bottom line is, we’re caught”

Coburn said he had been working on the unitary status issue for more than a year.

Talk is also continuing in Pleasure Bend to seek legislators to support grafting the community into St. James Parish. That will required a state constitutional amendment, approved by voters in a statewide referendum.