Bulletproof backpacks will be allowed in St. Landry Parish public schools and on buses, but it will continue to be against district policy for students to wear body armor.
The bulletproof backpacks were approved by the Legislature.
Candy Gerace, president of the School Board, said she heard from experts that the backpacks are “really not very good” because they are heavy and would hinder a child running from danger.
“They may not be the best use of $500,” she said at a July 25 meeting of the School Board’s Executive Committee meeting in Opelousas.
The backpacks were one of several policies presented by Jerome Robinson, supervisor of health, physical education and athletics, to be considered by the full Board at a 5 p.m. meeting today a the school system’s resource center, 1013 E. Creswell Lane, Opelousas.
Firearms are banned from within 1,000 feet of any campus with exceptions for law enforcement personnel.
Superintendent Patrick Jenkins said he was to meet with Sheriff Bobby Guidroz to discuss school security.
“Once we have a chance to meet with the sheriff then we are going to put guidance out ...” Jenkins said about school security.
State Police are doing assessments of security at schools starting the high schools as mandated by Gov. John Bel Edwards, he said.
The school district has a crisis management plan on file now, but work is underway to update it, Jenkins said.
In another policy discussion, Robinson said students should have no expectations of privacy while in school. But students are to be informed if their lockers are searched, he said.
Any time students are on campus or at school events they can be searched with the right procedures, he said.
