BOGALUSA, La. — Counselors are back on campus for students and staff inside Bogalusa City Schools.
“We’re just trying to make sure they’re safe at school,” Superintendent Lisa Tanner said.
Tanner says the murder of student Ronie Taylor, 15, Friday night has ripple effects. Police say two 14-year-old students were shot but survived. It happened during a birthday party attended by dozens of teenagers, many also students.
“When things happen outside in the community, of course if it’s happening in your neighborhoods and the children are involved, they’re going to bring some of that back with them to school,” Tanner said. “Whether it be hostility, or being scared, or frightened about what happened, they’re going to bring that back and they’re going to need to talk about it.”
Tanner says counselors were also important after the October killing of Jerry Smith, 15, of Covington. He was shot during a football game in Bogalusa, outside the stadium.
Last August Aaron Brown, 18, a Bogalusa High School junior, was killed in a drive-by shooting.
“Our children in our community obviously are having to deal with a lot of things and sometimes as educators we don’t realize all the things our children deal with coming from home,” Tanner said.
Bogalusa police have responded to 77 calls of shots fired this year, leading to eight homicides. Three of the victims are kids.
“It hits a different place in your heart when it’s a child who hasn’t even had a chance to experience life,” Major Troy Tervalon said.
Tervalon says the police department is paying close attention to the combination of kids and gun violence
“I wish I had the answers to why, but I don’t but it’s kind of a nationwide problem,” Tervalon said.
“They don’t care. They have no respect for nobody,” said Khlilia Daniels who owns the party venue where Friday night’s shooting happened.
Daniels says guns in the hands of kids is such a problem that teens were searched before entering the party.
“One child did get mad because we wouldn’t let him in there with a gun,” Daniels said.
Daniels has lived in Bogalusa all her life and says kids are getting guns way too easily.
“Picking up guns, that’s not the answer,” Bogalusa Mayor-elect Tyrin Truong said.
Truong knows it’s a problem he’ll be faced with when he takes office next month. He plans to begin youth mentorship programs but says more change must happen.
“It’s going to take the parents. It’s going to take the community. It’s going to take the officials. We need the community to do their part,” Truong said.
According to data from the CDC, researchers found that in 2020 firearm-related injuries became the leading cause of death among children and adolescents, ages one to 19.
Bogalusa police do expect to make arrests connected to Friday’s shooting.
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