Some Jefferson Parish schools will get safety upgrades after the district received more than $600,000 in state money to implement security updates and other violence prevention measures at 13 of its campuses.
The grants, announced this week, are part of an ongoing push to strengthen school security across Louisiana.
In Jefferson Parish, which was awarded the highest amount of funding in the state, officials said the money will be used to install entranceway vestibules – small rooms that serve as a transition space leading into a larger room, like a lobby – to screen visitors before they enter the main area of each campus.
The schools tapped to receive the upgrades include:
Emmett C. Gilbert School of Excellence at FordStrehle Community SchoolPhoebe Hearst SchoolWest Jefferson High SchoolLeo E. Kerner Jr. Elementary SchoolGrand Isle High SchoolRiverdale High SchoolAllen Ellender SchoolAirline Park Academy for Advanced studiesJohn Q. Adams Middle SchoolLincoln School for the Arts
One campus has not yet been determined.
District spokeswoman Stacy White said each school will receive a combination of similar and site-specific safety updates. She noted that the district aims to complete the improvements within the year.
“While core elements such as secure vestibules, access control systems and administrative panic buttons are common across sites,” she said in an email, “individual upgrades will vary based on each campus’s existing infrastructure and needs.”
All but two schools received $50,000. Emmett C. Gilbert School of Excellence and John Q. Adams Middle school received $43,000 and $42,000, respectively.
“Investing in safe and modern buildings is essential to supporting strong learning environments,” Patrick Jenkins, the district’s chief operations officer, said in a statement. The funding will let Jefferson Parish “make important infrastructure improvements that directly strengthen the safety of our schools.”
He added that the vestibules will help bring “peace of mind” for staff, students and their families.
In 2023, state lawmakers passed the School Safety Act, which requires public K-12 schools to develop comprehensive crisis management response plans. In response to the legislation, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security established the Louisiana Center for Safer Schools and its related grant program.
Eligible schools can receive up to $50,000 and are allowed to use the funds to purchase security-related technology or equipment, hire security staff, implement threat awareness and response training, or make security upgrades to existing structures.
When reviewing grant applications, the center takes into account prior incidents and works with local and state law enforcement agencies to determine each campus or district’s current threat environment, the organization’s website says.
Jefferson Parish previously received more than $500,000 in 2023 from the State Education Department to put toward security upgrades, which the district said it would use to install live security cameras, implement key card access for emergency personnel to enter campuses and install security barriers in school lobbies.
The new grants are “an important step in making sure every child in Jefferson Parish has a safe place to learn and grow,” superintendent James Gray said in a statement.
There have been multiple safety incidents at Jefferson Parish schools this year.
In March, a student at Bonnabel High School in Metairie was arrested after authorities said he brought a gun to campus in a bookbag. In response, the Jefferson Parish School Board passed a new policy requiring all students to carry clear plastic backpacks and laptop cases. The policy went into effect this month.
Last week, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said one student was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries and another was arrested after a fight broke out at Metairie’s East Jefferson High School. It was not clear how the student was injured or what prompted the fight, and deputies said an investigation into the incident was ongoing.
