When it comes to protecting our children, transparency should never be optional.
At the Pearl River Town Hall meeting, Major Dean said:
“I believe we were the only agency in the parish that was mandated to send a list of officers’ names and their training certification to the mayor. We actually sent it to the School Board.”
That statement appeared to frame the disclosure of officer qualifications as an unusual burden placed on Pearl River. But when concerns were later raised about whether Officer Courtney Badon’s assignment complied with the School Board contract, responsibility was shifted elsewhere.
Major Dean stated:
“The town attorney should have caught that, I guess, because we don’t sign the contract. The mayor does.”
Dean also acknowledged having a copy of the contract in his office while indicating that he did not know what the contract required.
That back-and-forth raises a serious question: Who was actually responsible for verifying that officers assigned to the schools met the contractual requirements?
A department cannot object to providing training records, admit it possessed the contract without knowing its terms, and then blame another official for failing to catch a qualification issue.
This is a leadership and accountability problem.
More importantly, this should not be treated as an issue limited to Pearl River. Why shouldn’t every law-enforcement agency in St. Tammany Parish, and across Louisiana, be required to verify and disclose the qualifications of every officer assigned or potentially assigned to work inside a school?
APR St. Tammany is calling for a clear parishwide and statewide standard:
Document, verify and disclose the qualifications and SRO-certification status of every officer before that officer is assigned to a campus.
Do not wait for public pressure.
Do not wait for a controversy.
Do not wait until parents begin asking questions.
Our children are our future, and their safety is too important for unread contracts, conflicting explanations or responsibility being passed from one office to another.
Parents deserve certainty, not confusion, about the qualifications of the officers assigned to protect their children.
The Town Hall and the Schoolboard, just showed the community APR•St Tammany was and is right.