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LAFAYETTE, La. – On March 13, 2024, the Lafayette Parish School Board voted 4-5 not to approve school board member Amy Trahan’s motion to keep the Gifted Program at Paul Breaux Middle School beyond this school year.
In addition, the board voted 5-4 to approve the substitute motion to relocate the French and Spanish Immersion Programs to Scott Middle School beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.
Newly elected District 4 Lafayette Parish School Board Member Amy Trahan expressed, “Please know that I do not support moving any programs from Paul Breaux Middle School, nor do I support closing the school.”
The History of Paul Breaux
Paul Breaux Middle School holds a deep history in Lafayette Parish. During the late 19th century, most white Southerners did not see Black people as humans, let alone worthy of receiving high-quality education.
Truthfully, there wouldn’t be a historically Black public school in Lafayette without Paul Breaux himself. Paul Breaux Middle School was named after a Creole of Color long-term educator who advocated for children of color to receive a quality education.
According to the former principal of Paul Breaux Elementary School, J. Carlton James, in 1896, Breaux took the opportunity and used some land turned over by The Lafayette Parish Education Association. He then opened a “school for colored children” on West Simcoe and South Washington Street.
Breaux served as school principal for 30 years, until 1926. Unfortunately, he died that same year. Subsequent to Breaux’s death, W.D. Smith, another Black educator, assumed the position of principal. Smith began to gradually enroll incoming high school students year by year.
Between 1926 and 1953, the school was relocated to an unsafe rural area on Southeast Evangeline Thruway and East Pinhook Road. After community outcry and a protest, it moved to its current location on South Orange Street. In addition, a separate high school was built exclusively for Black high school students.
Before desegregation, Paul Breaux High School was the only public high school African Americans could attend in Lafayette Parish.
Like other segregated schools in the South, students at Paul Breaux High School received hand-me-down textbooks and poorly built schoolhouses.
James expressed, “If you look at schools in the vicinity of Lafayette, most of the schools for whites were brick, those for [Blacks] were wood.” Some students even had to walk five-plus miles to get to school.
During the late 1960s, the Lafayette Parish School System underwent desegregation, granting Black families the freedom to select the schools for their children. This shift notably impacted Paul Breaux High School, resulting in a decline in enrollment as Black families enrolled their children elsewhere. Consequently, the school board made the decision to relocate students and ultimately closed down the historic high school in 1970, repurposing it as a middle school.
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Current Challenges
Lafayette natives and locals feel old wounds reopening because of the school board’s decision.
Trahan painfully shared that the board did propose the possibility of closing Paul Breaux Middle School and converting it into a storage warehouse for the Lafayette Parish School System. Because of community uproar, the school board decided to bypass this proposal.
A former Paul Breaux High School student recalled her experience of abruptly relocating to another school as a life-changing challenge. She discussed the denial of participation in student clubs, sports, and organizations because of intentional exclusivity.
Sadly, the community feels the removal and relocation of programs will eventually lead to the closure of Paul Breaux Middle School.
One parent who started a petition to keep Paul Breaux Middle School open shared her daughter’s experience. “She’s had an amazing school year. The faculty there are so committed to the school. She has made friends, she’s in the drama club and made the honor roll twice in a row,” she said.
At a heated community meeting organized by 100 Black Men of Greater Lafayette Inc., several parents pointed out the contradictions in data and actions from the Lafayette Parish School System. While addressing her fellow board members, Trahan said, “Let’s be real about the numbers.”
According to data collected by the school system, Paul Breaux Middle School’s year-to-year enrollment rates are not the lowest. Yet, it is the only middle school targeted for divestment and received verbal threats of potential school closure.
Students, parents, alumni, and locals have attended additional community and board meetings, feeling overwhelmed and defeated.
How to Help Paul Breaux Middle School
Paul Breaux Middle School is still open, which means the mission is not over. Concerned citizens can contact the superintendent and the Lafayette Parish School Board Members to express their dismay and offer tangible solutions.
The public can attend school board meetings in person or virtually. People can also donate via DonorsChoose to support projects and programs at Paul Breaux Middle School.
The educational wellness of Black students in America should concern everyone. In 1982, Louisiana native Louis Benjamin Jr. said, “It’s emphatic evidence that everyone sitting in this room is educated, and we are the products of Black school systems.” Paul Breaux’s legacy and vision cannot die.
