The Leah Chase School (TLC) is the only Orleans Parish public school directly run by NOLA Public Schools under the direction of the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB). From a 2024 press release:
About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district’s administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 67 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Avis Williams, the first woman in the District’s 181 years to serve as its permanent superintendent.
In 2018, the numerous charter schools in New Orleans were placed under the local board as the state-run Recovery School District (RSD) was dissolved and some of those autonomous charters needed some investigation (see this 2022 post for details).
The option for a New Orleans charter school to once again be direct-run, operated by OPSB, had always remained a theoretical possibility. However, not until 2023, when Lafayette Academy lost its charter due to “poor performance” and no other charter operator wanted to operate the school of then 500 elementary students did OPSB step up and assume responsibility for the school, renaming it TLC and opening it in 2024-25 as a K-5 school with the ultimate goal being a K-8 school, adding a grade per school year.
That was the plan, or so it seemed. Superintendent Avis Williams resigned in November 2024 and received a “secret settlement,” as Fox News reports:
Williams and the district jointly announced her resignation on Nov. 14, 2024, the same day Williams signed the agreement. The news came amid a multi-million dollar revenue overestimation crisis.
In the agreement, Williams agreed to not sue the district over any potential claims. Both sides agreed to never share the terms, amount or existence of the agreement with the public unless required by law.
Then, in October 2025, TLC principal Crystal LaFrance abruptly resigned. The Lens notes, “It is unclear what prompted LaFrance’s mid-year resignation. She could not be reached for comment.”
Now, in 2025-26, OPSB is considering closing the school. The main reasons appear to be a financial deficit complicated by slower-than-expected enrollment growth.
However, commentary offered during the public comment period of the OPSB’s December 18, 2025, meeting raises a number of questions about the board’s operation of the school and even whether OPSB knows how to (or even wants to, frankly) efficiently oversee a single direct-run school.
The board deferred further action on TLC until its January 08, 2026, board meeting.
The community clearly wants OPSB to support this school, New Orleans’ only district-run public school in eight years.
In the 65 minutes of public comment, the TLC community raised a number of excellent questions. In this post, I transcribe a number of the public comments, all of which are in support of sustaining this direct-run school and honoring the community’s desire for traditional, board-run, public schools. I abbreviated some entries for the sake of space. Also, I had to guess at the spelling of many names since I was only hearing names called (as opposed to reading them).
All-charter New Orleans was something that was done TO the new Orleans community, not IN CONCERT WITH the New Orleans community. Therefore, it is important to amplify the voice of that community by transcribing members’ words in posts like this.
The full video is included at the end of this post. (In this post, each speaker’s words are time-stamped for ease of location on the full video.)
These comments are stellar. They are on the mark for what has been happening literally for decades: The New Orleans community wants its traditional school system back. The community has said so time and again, not because those with means and political leverage included the community in the post-Katrina, all-charter conversion discussion, but because the community has had to fight against the orchestrated theft of their public school system and is trying to regain what is rightfully theirs.
The door is open. They have one direct-run school.
And here we are, in 2026. OPSB is responsible for a single school, and only two years in, OPSB is questioning whether or not to kill it.
As the community members began to speak, I noticed that immediately that many comments focused on the need for stability in the New Orleans schools.
Lauren Jewett, founding staff member (2023) and special education teacher (42:45):
When you close a public school, you’re not just shutting down a building; you are breaking trust. You are telling families that stability is optional, that their children are expendable, and that this disruption is an acceptable policy tool. If enrollment is down, please ask why. If outcomes are uneven, ask whether the instability, turnover, and constant restructuring might be part of the problem. If you believe in public education, prove it by fixing what’s hard and not abandoning it.
Melissa Francis (45:00):
Leah Chase is the only direct-run school in New Orleans, and it actually works. Students are learning; families are engaged; there is a trust between parents, teachers, and teacher leadership, school leadership. Stability really matters, especially in a city where schools are constantly being closed and/or relocated. … We are asking that the board honor the voices of the parents and keep Leah Chase School open as a direct-run school. We are simply just asking for respect for our families to have choice and community stability.
Ramona Aguilar (46:22):
If we keep putting our children in depression, from school to school, what type of children will we have? Where we have no stability for our children? … [To the board] Is this indicative of the education system that you all had, where we don’t know how to run things for our children?
Ann Marie Coviello (53:40) invited the board “to do what you’re actually paid, I believe it’s $800 stipend a month, to actually run a school”:
Let’s call in a vision of stability. Let’s give the principal… a contract that goes beyond one year. Let’s give the teachers a contract that goes beyond one year. What would that look like? [Applause.] They actually knowmthey have stability in their jobs, and they could commit, experienced teachers you’ve already hired– people with credentials. Certified teachers who know what they’re doing.
You don’t need all these charter school bells and whistles, and the PBIS, and the “lunch on the lawn” and the “games on the grass.” What you need is good teachers. … Stabilize this school…. Envision the beauty that this school could be. It’s on you. Put it in your hearts. You can do this. You can direct-run a school.
LaToya Holmes (1:10:11):
Leah Chase is more than a building; it is a community anchor, strengthens the neighborhood, provides stability in a world that too often feels uncertain[] for our kids. When we talk about what’s best for children, we must listen to their experience, not to disrupt them. Keeping the school open… is about choosing commitment over convenience, people over disruption.
One stakeholder, Collette Tippey, filed a public records request on some TLC financials and disclosed the results, leaving the public with questions about whether there really is a financial shortfall for TLC (48:43):
I rise in support of investing in the only school that you are running, and I commend the board members that I see putting in the hard work to invest in this school.
It is disappointing to see the information that’s being presented in this agenda item today. As you are all aware, I asked for budget versus actuals for Leah Chase School on Friday (12/12/25), and I’d like to commend the public records folks for their quick response. The budget versus actuals that I received shows that at the end of the 24-25 fiscal year, there was a total of $1,315,429 which was budgeted for the Leah Chase School but not spent. [Audience applause and surprise reaction. One asked, “Where’s that money?”] This appears to be unrelated to the $3.8M that the board approved for startup costs, and it has been clarified that that money was approved only for the 23-24 school year.
The numbers that have been presented publicly to this board paint a dramatically different picture and have shown a deficit.
Why do these documents not align with public presentations? [More applause.]
If there is a deficit, members of the community are willing to make private donations to sustain the school. TLC parent, Chris Edmunds (59:00), offered a remarkable donation on behalf of his mother, Karen Oser Edmunds, with a letter of intent hand delivered to OPSB members before the meeting:
There was reference to a donation that was made to the, in the name of The Leah Chase School, and, for reasons I don’t understand, that motion failed. That is a donation in, my family has been very blessed, okay? My mother is offering $1.5M to The Leah Chase School. The only restrictions are that you keep the school open for two years and that all the funds are used to fund The Leah Chase School. One and a half million dollars. [Waves letter.] That was sent to the board counsel this afternoon. So, if you’re saying this is about money, we’re calling your bluff. That’s enough to cover the entire deficit for the next year and probably for the next two years, not including– if their even is a deficit.
The district-wide average for homelessness is six percent. At The Leah Chase School, it’s sixteen percent. This isn’t just a school; this is a safe space for those kids. You’re talking about that is dozens and dozens of children dealing with home instability, sleeping in shelters, motels, on someone’s floor. And now, you’re going to give them school instability? … We don’t want to put this off. These teachers need to know if they have a job next year. The families need to know where they’re going to send their kids next year. It makes no sense to put it off. We have the money. Do the right thing and keep us open.
Later in the meeting, the board voted to accept the $1.5M, but without conditions. Based on Edmunds’ offer, the practical outcome of the vote is that the board rejected the money, which comes with the conditions that it be used to fund TLC and that the board agree to keep TLC open for two years.
The December 19, 2025, Verite News describes the board’s waffling and ultimate nonsense vote as follows:
Board members butted heads throughout the meeting in regards to what they should do surrounding fundraising and determining the future of the school. Zervigon said he voted against the motion to consider accepting the donation because it came with specific restrictions, and that he doesn’t consider it to be “an honest contribution.” Later, after becoming the subject of the crowd’s frustration, Zervigon introduced a motion to consider accepting the money without restrictions, which passed unanimously. Board members then voted unanimously to accept the money. But because the offer was contingent on the prospective donor’s restrictions, it does not appear that the vote will amount to anything.
I spoke with Edmunds on January 02, 2026, and asked if he would provide a statement via email regarding the situation. Below is his response:
The Board voted against accepting the money because they did not want to commit to keeping the school open. They later held a sham vote to accept the money without promising to keep the school open.
We do intend on offering the money again, with the same condition that the school be kept open.
Percy Marchand (50:40) listed a number of criticisms about inefficient operation of TLC, including “putting negative stories out every time enrollment opens then complaining that the school isn’t at capacity”; “spending $250,000 to market the school to every [kid or] family outside of the 5,000 families that have school-aged children right in the neighborhood”; “spending $750,000 a year to bus those kids outside the community.”; “slowing down self-led, self-funded recruitment efforts of the community leaders by promising signs, promising fliers, promising community meetings for weeks and never delivering.”
Marchand also commented on the time of meetings set for the community: “Disrespecting and dismissing the community leaders who give up their time, their energy, their resources to represent the families who can’t afford to fight rush-hour traffic to attend your 5:30PM meetings on the bank (the West Bank) that fewer than an eighth of your students live.”
Marchand concludes:
This isn’t about Leah Chase School and a deficit. This is assurance to the public that our future does not lie in the decisions of some unaccountable charter operators, but that our board is capable and able to do its job, and that the next time a charter is pulled and no charter operators steps up, that you will be able to do your job.
Leah Chase is not a failing school. Its letter grade actually increased. The ones that you guys just renewed for three years, some of them have lower scores. Do the job that you were elected to do. Stop telling lies, and start telling the truth.
Mary Ann Muchat (1:32:30) questioned the board about its focus on potentially closing TLC while allowing D or F charters to remain open and there by continue to complicate declining enrollment issues:
While recognizing the shrinking number of students remaining in NOLA due to sundry issues of our city’s quality of life, I ask why the school board won’t consider, if this is a financial deal that we’re talking about, why you don’t consider closing one of the ten charter schools with a multiple-year record of a D or F rating, or the 39 charters with the grade of a C. To be fair, there are eight charter schools with a B and twelve with an A. However, in the ranking of existing schools, from ’24 to ’25, five charter schools went from a grade C to a D; two went from a D to an F; four remained with a D, and one kept its grade of an F.
As reported, The Leah Chase School earned a D in its first year of creating community-based school, and it deserves the promised three years to establish itself as a community anchor.
The Leah Chase School deserves the full backing of the school board, especially in promoting the school to local parents, neighbors, and businesses. To do otherwise is an abandonment of our children to disjointed charter schools, which while paid for by all New Orleaneans, have no oversight by anyone– state, local, or even the school board authorities.
Regarding the need to better advertise the school, parent Najet Valcour (1:30:05), who had eight children attending five different schools and who currently has three children attending TLC, commented:
Leah Chase doesn’t have, to me, the support that they need, advertisement, radio, whether it be billboards, social media.
I got off of the bridge on Carrollton. They had five signs from Carrollton to the front of Leah Chase. (Note: This distance is less than a mile, with only a few signs, and those only right near the school and not elsewhere, like interstate billboards.)
Parents and other stakeholders want the board to continue (and to expand) the option of direct-run schools in New Orleans. Below are comments from Sojourner Gibbs (55:28), a parent who lives on the other side of the Mississippi from Leah Chase but is willing to drive her 5-year-old there to attend a direct-run school as opposed to the charter school “just down the street”:
Good evening, everyone. My name is Dr. Sojourner Gibbs [gives West Bank address]. That means I live down the street. … I was so excited to hear about Leah Chase School opening, not just because of the name, but because Orleans Parish School Board was back to doing the business of its actual founding, which is to run schools. … School choice is more than just private schools and charter schools. It should include city-run schools, and I’m asking you– imploring you– to please keep open Leah Chase School.
The New Orleans community needs board investment in the stability of direct-run schools. In concert with Edmunds’ comments about homelessness faced by 16 percent of TLC students, Erika Lara, an English learner (EL) teacher at TLC, speaks of the extra care some students need regarding basic necessities, and, again, how stability in a school is critical to the health and well being of children, especially those with instability rocking their personal lives (57:23):
I come here to be the voice of the EL students, that most of them couldn’t be here, you know the reasons why. But they have a voice. So… we received funds for the EL students. But also, we received funds for the SPED students. Also, there are EL students that are SPED students. So, if you close The Leah Chase, they are not going to receive a SPED good education, and they are not going to receive the quality that they are receiving right now. Because, we know, our children in The Leah Chase, they were hurt academically. We receive them in an F. They were already academically hurt. And every single [one] of our teachers there, that are caring about them, [points to board] I’m sorry, but I never see any one of you, any one, looking to our children when they don’t have shoes on their feet. I don’t see any one of you putting socks on them. I don’t see any one of you wiping their tears when they don’t have anything to eat at home. But, guess what? Me and my colleagues, we have been driving to their homes when they don’t have food and give them food. And put shoes on their feet. This is not about our salary. It’s about protecting the rights of our children, that they need a public school that is worthy of education.
I noticed that speaker after speaker refers to direct-run schools as “public schools” and charter schools as “charter schools.”
This community does not consider charter schools to be “public schools.”
In her comments, parent Rachel Bose (1:01:50) advocates for more direct-run “public schools”:
There’s been a lot of discussion about whether the money is there or not– sounds like it’s. But even if it was a matter of money, this does feel very much like setting something up to fail on purpose, for what kind of agenda, I don’t know aside from the fact that we know the charter schools clearly make more money than the public schools typically do. They focus more on profit, and, while I understand that schools are supposed to accommodate for things like IEPs (individualized education plans), for things like supports for special needs students, and to make sure that al students have access to equitable learning, it’s my experience with four kids, three of whom are still stuck in the charter school system because Leah Chase doesn’t currently accommodate their grade levels, they do not. They do not. I don’t know why they do not, but they do not accommodate for children who need anything extra who aren’t already excelling. And I’ve heard this from dozens of my kids’ friends. There’s bullying problems in charter schools that we have not experienced at Leah Chase.
Since we switched my daughter to Leah Chase, she has done tremendously well. She loves going to school. … Her grades have improved. Her mental health has improved. … So, while I understand that the rules are supposed to be the same for charters and public schools, clearly there’s not enough accountability for these charter schools [Applause] and clearly enough people want the public school option back– especially those of us who remember what it was like to have that before.
Education advocate, Betty DiMarco (1:04:50) questioned the lack of choice in a system of only charter schools, and she also questioned administrative spending that seems out of place given that autonomous charters buget for their own services:
I see this photo of Dr. [Everett] Williams. He was superintendent when I got involved I education reform. I never thought in my life after all the work that a bunch of us in this community did to try to look at the governance and moving decision making from Central Office down to the schools is the plan that we had. We had one charter school because of Leslie Jacobs was able to convince the state of Louisiana to let her open a charter middle school. I didn’t have a problem with that. I thought it was a great idea for us to have a little competition and maybe some help for the children who were not receiving what my kids did.
It’s really interesting because now, we are, you guys are saying to us, “this charter school plan is wonderful, and we’re not ever going to let anybody change that.” Because that’s where we are right now, and if you guys shut down this school, I don’t think everybody in this audience is going to walk away because everybody understands there really is no choice. We need something else.
Working on this Leah Chase project led me to pull up staffing for Central Office, I will call it, for administration. I have so many questions about where that money is going when we have charters who are autonomous, making their own dad-gum decisions. I actually looked at a budget today of a charter, and I’m wondering why we’ve got all these nutrition people on our, paying for an administrative office when the charter schools already have in their budget for cafeteria. Now, maybe they’re buying the food and we’re supplying the workers; I’m not really sure what’s happening.
Grant writing. Talked to somebody at a charter the other day and they said, “Nobody has ever come to us from the school system to offer grant writing.
I hope you guys will listen and make a better decision tonight.
Former superintendent and principal, Valencia Douglas (1:07:44) spoke of the need for an option to only charters– actual “choice” for parents who are crying for it– and the need for the board to permit TLC “to become stabilized” as the community works to address fiscal needs of the school:
I’ve spent my life in education. It’s very difficult to make decisions, but you make decisions in the best interest of the children. We have parents here tonight that are telling you what they need and what their children need, and they haven’t found it in the charter schools. If you take away Leah Chase, you take away our right to have choice.
Charter schools came in to give choice. Now they’re taking away choice. That can’t be.
Additionally, we have highly trained teachers. And these teachers love the children the way that they need to be loved. They go to the parents’ homes. They make sure their children have what they need. They teach them in joy. It’s not just only about testing. Testing is part of it, but they teach them in joy. And what the board needs to do is listen to that and understand that. We are willing, we are willing to help raise whatever funds are needed. What we need you to do is let us become stabilized so that we’ll have sufficient number of years to get this done, and then you will have the kind of school that everybody wants for all of the children.
We do not want to be part of charter schools. We want to have district-run schools so that we can come and address the board and our superintendent when we have needs. That’s what it’s all about. And we should not be the only city in America with all charter schools.
Please, listen to the parents. We will help to make the school whatever you need financially, but listen to these parents, and listen to these teachers.
In keeping with the community’s desire for direct-run schools, United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) president, Dave Cash (1:11:51) also challenged OPSB to become more than just a charter school authorizer:
I come before you today to urge you to invest in The Leah Chase School and to ask this board to make a firm commitment in running schools again. I am president of the United Teachers of New Orleans. We believe it is critical that the district rebuild its capacity to run truly-public schools again. You’ve heard from parents, not only today but all week, about the value of the education that their children are receiving at The Leah Chase School. You’ve heard from teachers about their experiences in this district-run school and that they left schools they were at to help become founding educators at The Leah Chase School. This is a special place, and, unlike every other school in this city, you– a democratically-elected board– are not just authorizers of this school.
You have the opportunity and responsibility to run the school.
As this district has been rettoled to function as an authorized of schools, the muscles of running a school directly have understandably atrophied. But the only way to retrain those muscles is to invest in the School– work out the kinks– include the community– and learn how to do better.
When charter schools were introduced, their intention was to be a way to experiment and learn how to do things better. As a public school district, we should be learning from those outcomes and applying them to running schools across our city.
This is the one school in our city where the people of New Orleans can hold you accountable for the outcomes because they voted for you to sit on this board.
I am asking you to step up to the task of running schools again. If choice is a guiding principle, then give students, families, and educators the choice of direct-run schools. We have seen the playbook for privatization of public services time and time again: First divest, then point to a failure, then get the public to clamor for a supposedly-more-efficient private operator.
We won’t stand by and watch this happen again.
This board typically gets three options: renew a contract, find a new operator, or close a school. We are not limited by those choices here. With this school, you have the opportunity to iron out the kinks, right-size the budget, empower educators to apply world-class instruction, and set an example for the rest of the city schools to follow.
It’s all about choice. What will yours be?
Jefferson Parish teacher, Percy Robinson III (1:24:50), also pointed out the OSPB’s lack of experience with directly overseeing schools as opposed to simply authorizing charters:
Before Leah Chase, Orelans Parish School Board was operating as a governing authority. You all (the current board) had no experience in leading a school. So we shouldn’t have hired a novice principal who had no experience but a principal who did have experience in running a school.
You all recently had a board session. Unfortunately, though, that consultant you brought in sits on the board of directors for the National Charter School Authorization. [Applause.] Why didn’t we conduct, why didn’t we try to find somebody, why didn’t we reach out to JP (Jefferson Parish Schools) or another, you know, neighboring traditional public school district to advise us on what it takes to operate a neighboring school district?
Benjamin Franklin sophomore, Aidan Gibbs (1:133:58) spoke on the disparity between charters having usually five-year contracts and being judged after five years (renewal time) versus direct-run TLC, which is facing judgment only in its second year (for more info, see this Lens article):
I have bounced from charter schools because none of them could accommodate my needs. And, personally, I know– well, I’ve learned– that charter schools get five years to meet the requirements while public schools only get two. … If a charter school gets five years and a public school gets two years, last I checked, two and five don’t equal the same thing.
Retired teacher, Janice Stevenson (1:19:30) focused on the positive impact of direct-run-school stability without even using that particular term. She also asks for the long-overdue return of local, board-run schools from what is the now-defunct state control:
I am a retired school teacher. I have watched my nieces grow from Leah Chase School, when their mother had to move them from school to school to school. I left Orleans Parish schools when they chartered because I saw people coming in who had no educational background working with our students, and they couldn’t understand what was going on. The students– skipped school. I mean, some of them wouldn’t come to school. They wouldn’t even report that the students were absent. They reported that they were there.
I ended up working in JJIC (Juvenilve Justice Intervention Center), and for those of you who don’t know what that is, the juvenile justice system, where those students ended up.
Once they got to us, and they were required to be in class, I had students tell me things like, “I didn’t know I was smart till I came here. Nobody cared about me until I came here.”
Leah Chase is doing for these students what needs to be done so they don’t end up in a JJIC. [Applause.] Leah Chase is providing the type of education that our children need, and not the teachers who come from everywhere to work for three years, put it on their resume and move on. [Applause.] Leah Chase deserves time to continue educating the students in Orleans Parish that we elected the school board to run.
They’re a direct-run school. Charter schools run on their own, making all kind of money and putting our children in harm’s way.
It’s time for Orleans Parish to take their schools back. The state was supposed to have the schools for three years and then give them back.
How many years has it been?
TLC student, Bailey Watson, told the board (1:28:42):
If you close my school down, you’re closing the dream of other kids.
TLC grandmother, Terra Boyd (1:36:00), adds,
Here’s the community. They’ve given you stats. They’ve shown you how much supported that Leah Chase kids are. They’ve shown you how much support the teachers give.
Keep Leah Chase open. Don’t let this be another Katrina episode where y’all just shut the schools down. Even though some of the board is not there, this seems like we’re reliving that. Teachers came back– no jobs. No stability. No knowing what’s what. The parents came back looking for schools.
We came back to a new reality that was forced upon us:
Charter schools.
We didn’t vote on that.
The only choice we had was to send our children to charter schools. Now that we have a direct-run public school, that gives us choice. That gives us community. That gives us a sense of “we are somebody, our kids can go somewhere.”
Don’t take that away. Please don’t take that away. We’ve invested too much in this. You’re saying that there are budget shortfalls? Show us the budget. Let us have input on that budget. We have people in the community who are willing to step up.
Let us help you help our children. That’s out main point:
We want our children to thrive. We want our children to be somebody.
Give us that opportunity. Please give us that opportunity.
I come from a system of charters with my grandson who has special needs, learns differently. Not that he’s not able,but the support was not given there. Leah Chase gives that support. They welcome the community to come in, to give us advice. Don’t take that away.
It’s a new world that we want back. Charters are not that world. We don’t want to go there.
Mother of four children, one of whom graduated post-Katrina, Stephanie Bridges (1:38:30), notes,
This experiment, this charter school experiment, is failing our children, and we want you to open your eyes and see that.
You only have one direct school. One. And you’re going to tell me you cannot keep that one school open?
I know you came to sit on the board because this is something you wanted to do. You wanted to educate our children.
We’re asking you to educate our children and keep Leah Chase School open.
That’s not hard.
You only have one school. One.
Do. Your. Job.
Keep. This. School. Open.
Listen to the parents. Listen to the community.
Keep. This. School. Open.
One job.
One school.
Keep it open.
Step Up Louisiana co-director, Maria Harmon (1:42:19) offers this pointed commentary about the board’s previous willingness to use reserve funds to rescue some charter schools in shaky fiscal straits and challenges them to do the same for TLC:
This school has become a staple in the community. Yes, a sense of nostalgia has reemerged within the community because they’ve seen community ownership reemerge again. Things started to feel like home again, and, we really need to seize the opportunity to really stand on our ten for our children because this is our school.
This is the only direct-run school in the city, but for some reason, it is a stain in the community amongst charters.
We don’t need to fall to their political will right now.
The pressure is high. But you have to remember who voted for you. Not the campaign contributions. Not the, all of the advertisements you got for your campaigns then. You’ve got to think about those votes that you got because though they were influenced by the mailers, the phone calls, those are still everyday people who still want to have stability for their children.
So, let’s think about the voters right now who actually got you all in office, not the campaign drivers. And, if we’re really going to put things in perspective, I’m speaking to the board members who are sitting on this board when you all allowed $1.2 million dollars, $2 million dollars go here and there out of the reserves to help some of those charter schools gain grounding.
That happened. It happened because it was at least three board resolutions that were passed or actions, right? You had to vote to even go into the reserves, and then you had to vote to have the reserves added back to the general fund budget, and then you had to vote on the community agreement between you and the charter school. Rosenwald, for one of them. It’s a few of them, too.
So, why isn’t the same action being made for Leah Chase? [Applause.] Because, it’s a systemwide benefit. And, by default, by law, Leah Chase has to take any child that is kicked out of a charter school in the middle of the school year.
They have to take that child because its the only direct-run, traditional public school in the city.
So, do the right thing and keep this school open. Put the resources where it needs to be.
Edgar Chase, grandson of Louisiana chef, Leah Chase, for whom TLC is named (1:15:23), also addressed the board and the public with a promise to support the New Orleans community:
I want to thank the members of the board for allowing me to talk tonight, but I hope that you appreciate the priority of a community. I hope you understand the values of a foundation of growing our youth, of educating our youth, of seeing our city prosper. And last, I want to let you families know, you teachers know, that we are committed for you, we are committed with you. We will be here not just today, not just January 8th, not just the next month, but we will be here each and every day to see your students, your kids, your teachers and faculty and staff succeed in our community. Because this is just not a school that’s depending on it. This is a city that’s depending on it. [Applause.] This is a country that’s depending on it.
Chase’s restaurant, Dooky Chase, is supporting a fundraiser for The Leah Chase School through the family’s foundation:
Finally, I will close this post with the comments of my friend, education advocate, parent, and community leader, Ashana Bigard (1:33:48), whom I had the honor of interviewing extensively ten years ago, in January 2016, regarding the post-Katrina takeover of New Orleans schools and the blatant omission of the New Orleans community in decisions affecting the future of their schools:
Um, so, struggling with what to say. I feel like I should just record myself and just play it on the Mike because I say the same thing over and over again.
Right now, we sit in a “what should we do” moment, and I’m not going to sit here and ask and plead that you care about the children, because that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 17 years. I’m going to ask that you think about your legacy. That’s what I’m going to ask you to do. Because, we’re looking at a city that has been begging for a traditional school since it became two-thirds charter. We have the scores on the Louisiana Department of Education website, and we know that our charter schools are clearly lying.
We have 45 kids that are being expelled every year for the last seven years, only 45 children, but the Net (online school) just expanded to two other schools? Where are all of these “opportunity youth” (“a term for young people aged 16-24 who are neither working nor enrolled in an educational institution”) coming from?
We have multiple problems with our schools not following state or federal special education laws across the entire city. Most of them don’t know what the laws are, and I know because I advocate inside those schools.
We only have one traditional school that the community begged and fought for, and I know because I was one of those people.
There was just a pledge of a donation for the money to keep the school open. The amendment to put it on record was just shut down. So, we have the money, and, going by the actual budget, we already had the money, so this is about political will. And I want you all to remember the Diddy documentary: Yes, someone may have nice parties and nice things and promise you the world, but at the end of the day, you have a legacy– you have to do right by these children– and also, New Orleans remembers. So, think about that.
Think about that, indeed.
The next meeting regarding the fate of TLC is scheduled for Thursday, January 08, 2026.
____________________________________________
In recent years, I haven’t posted nearly as much as I used to.
Part of the reason is that now, there are so many others writing and exposing issues related to the corporatization of public entities, including our nation’s public schools, that we are many voices, on social media and more formal, traditional media, as opposed to the few voices breaking through even just 13 years ago when I began my blog. It is not that I feel my voice is less important, but the fight against the privatization of public infrastructure certainly requires more than just a few of us, and for sure, we are many, and we are loud.
My main reason for pulling back on my writing is that I bear a great responsibility in caring for my mother. I have written about this change in my life in other postings.
My mother is of sound mind, but her mobility is limited, and so are her physical strength, balance, dexterity, and stamina. She turned 80 on December 6th. I gave her a new walker because she wears them out working in her garden and with her chickens. On Facebook, I posted a picture of the walker graveyard on her porch (which she has agreed to do something about once she goes through each of the carrying bags on the walkers of yesteryear).
Working full time and keeping her in an independent living situation is a mammoth challenge for me. But I have been at it now for six years, and I am in for the long haul.
My commitment to my mother’s independence is cemented. If it weren’t, two things she said to me recently would have done the trick.
My mother doesn’t talk too much about her childhood, but she has talked more in the last few years. Little stories. Vignettes that seem to come from nowhere.
She spent the first 13 years of her life in an orphanage, then went to live with relatives, which (understatement) was no easy ride. Her parents split up when she was born, and neither one wanted to take their five children, four young boys and my newborn mother.
So, they were put in orphanages in New Orleans. My mother was in Sacred Heart orphanage, which later became Cabrini High School.
Some months ago, I was doing dishes at her kitchen sink, and she said this:
“When I was a girl, I liked to catch lizards, but I didn’t think that God liked that, and I told God that I would give up catching lizards if he would send someone to visit me. I tried it, but no one came.”
My heart froze, then cracked. My hands kept doing dishes, but it was all I could do to not break down sobbing for that little girl with no visitors on visiting day.
And recently, more than once, my mother has asked me not to put her in a home.
And I thought, “My God. She began life in a home for unwanted children, and how terrible to be afraid of ending life in an old folks home.”
And once again, her words gripped my heart so tight that I feel it breaking even as I write.
I will do my best, by God’s grace and with His help, to keep my mother from having a life book-ended by living in a home.
So, blogosphere, I am still here. It has been a challenge to adjust my life in difficult but necessary ways and to remain psychologically balanced. I miss writing and traveling, but I have come to terms with what I must do in order to enable my mother to have a quality life. I’ll not kid anyone: It has its tough, vise-grip moments when I am tired and pulled in many directions sorting out the needs of her life and my own.
On numerous occasions, my mind wants to write, but my mind and body are so tired.
So, I roll with it.
Merry Christmas.
_________________________________________
Donald Trump has razed the East Wing of the White House.
On October 21, 2025, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (“National Trust”), sent this letter regarding the demolition to the National Capital Planning Commission, the National Park Service, and the Commission of Fine Arts. One point was the “legally required public review” that never happened:
We respectfully urge the Administration and the National Park Service to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes, including consultation and review by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, and to invite comment from the public.
On October 23, 2025, three members of the House sent a letter to Trump requesting documentation related to the demolition, including a detailed budget and those related to historical preservation.
ABC News reports that the White House moved “historical components” out of the East Wing “for future use”:
A White House official said “all the historical components of the East Wing … have been preserved and stored under the supervision of the White House Executive Residence and the National Park Service with support from the White House Historical Association. Plans are in place for future use.”
However, this information has not been publicly confirmed by the National Park Service, or any other entity. No published East Wing inventory, including current location.
No public input into this entire process.
What contents were saved, if any, remains anybody’s guess, as does what will (or perhaps already has) happened to those contents. After all, this is a president who only weeks ago wanted to give Eisenhower’s sword to King Charles. When he was told no, the director of the Eisenhower Library fould himself “exiting his position.”
In a press release dated July 31, 2025, the Trump administration put in writing its intention to demolish the East Wing without input from anyone:
The White House Ballroom will be substantially separated from the main building of the White House, but at the same time, it’s theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical. The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits. The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and changed many times, with a second story added in 1942.
“Renovated and changed,” yes, but not demolished.
On July 31, 2025, as NBC News recounts, Trump publicly stated that the East Wing would not be touched:
The demolition is a significant expansion of the ballroom construction project from what President Donald Trump said this summer.
“It won’t interfere with the current building,” Trump said on July 31. “It’ll be near it, but not touching it, and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”
The New York Times first reported the extent of the demolition.
His admin had already published its intent in a press release, but Trump lied publicly and then followed through on what he intended in the first place.
NBC News continues by referencing the October 21, 2025, National Trust letter:
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit agency created by Congress to help preserve historic buildings, warned administration officials in a letter Tuesday that the planned ballroom “will overwhelm the White House itself.”
…
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, the National Capital Planning Commission and D.C. State Historic Preservation Office are the regulatory agencies that would traditionally be involved in greenlighting any major renovations at the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The lawsuits have begun, as PoliticoPro reports:
GREENWIRE | A Virginia couple is taking President Donald Trump and the National Park Service to court over demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a massive ballroom.
Their lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Washington, says the administration failed to secure “legally required approvals or reviews” to destroy part of a building that they — and former White House occupants this week — said belongs to the American people.
Regarding the suit, Newsweek adds:
At stake is whether a sitting president can unilaterally alter one of the country’s most symbolically important buildings, or whether the “People’s House” must remain subject to the same review and accountability standards that govern other federal projects.
Then there’s the matter of asbestos.
According to the Asbestos Institute, residential buildings constructed early- to mid-1900s are highly likely to contain asbestos:
So, where is the oversight? Hazardous materials assessments? Hazardous materials protocols? Health precautions for workers? Safeguards for the public?
Opaque here, as well.
That doesn’t mean people aren’t searching. From the Daily Dot:
Sarah Boardman (@sarah.boardman.design), who stated that she has been a licensed contractor and designer for nearly three decades, posted a video questioning whether the demolition adhered to basic safety and permitting rules.
In the clip, Boardman explained that she had researched President Donald Trump‘s project and found “no permits” for the work. She added that if she conducted a demolition like the one seen at the East Wing, “I would be fined out of existence.”
According to her, the situation appeared unregulated and potentially hazardous, especially given the age of the building.
…
Boardman introduced herself in her TikTok by saying, “Hey y’all. So a lot of you know I’m an interior designer, have been for 30 years, have owned my own company. I’m also a general contractor and a builder.” She mentioned she had been one of just eight women in Chicago with a Class B license in the late 1990s, allowing her to construct nearly any type of building “but a skyscraper.”
She pointed to the East Wing’s long history of renovations, noting, “This building was started in 1798. Major renovations, 1814, 1840, and then tons of renovations in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.”
Because of that history, she said, “This building is full of asbestos. This building is full of mold. It has been known to leak.”
In an email to the Daily Dot, Boardman wrote, “This part of the East Wing was built in 1942,” adding that during this time, “asbestos was widely used as insulation on pipes, in walls, and ceilings, and multiple different kinds.”
“The way that this was done is very destructive, and the rest of the building should have had supportive structure already in place,” she added.
“Soil testing would have been done. Air testing would have been done. Multiple sites of the building would have been tested for asbestos for lead, for lots of diseases that mice and rats carry Legionnaires. The list is endless.”
…
According to Boardman, proper safety measures weren’t visible in footage of the demolition. “There is one guy spraying a tiny hose,” she said, adding that she would have been required to “shroud the entire building.”
“If they had been doing this properly for the remediation, which could have taken up to a year, the entire building would have been shrouded,” she wrote in her email.
“There would have been no one working in the building surrounding areas might have been alerted and relocated.”
“I worry about the construction workers,” Boardman wrote. “None of them appear to be wearing any kind of protection. I worry about the people that are working in the White House. The timeline for this is bonkers, and I’m not understanding why they think this would go unnoticed.”
She named McCrary Architects and Clark Construction as the companies reportedly involved, urging viewers to “make the calls” but to “be nice to the receptionists. They are not responsible for this.”
Before ending her video, she said she planned to share contact information for the firms and encouraged viewers to reach out to D.C.’s Department of Buildings about what she described as “illegal construction.”
Boardman isn’t the only one speaking out about the demolition. On Threads, @mutedfiligree posted, “Tearing down the white house with zero asbestos/lead management. Cause what could go wrong.”
Commenters echoed that concern, with one TikToker writing, “they don’t have permits because demoing the white house, a historic landmark and museum, requires a literal act of Congress.” Another asked, “Has anyone looked into Clark Construction to see about possible ties with the trump family? It’s hard to imagine that they bid and won the contract.”
Others questioned the project’s funding, such as one person who commented, “And the money is coming from private donors but they aren’t releasing who is paying for it?” A final commenter added a reminder about the risks involved. “East Wing was built in 1942. So asbestos, lead paint, all the fun stuff.”
So, there’s that huge, hazardous materials issue.
And guess where Trump is sending the likely-asbestos-laden, East Wing rubble?
A golf course.
Fron the Nancy Waleki of the Atlantic:
When the president of the United States decides to demolish the East Wing of the White House to construct a ballroom, all that stucco and molding and wood has to go somewhere. So I tried to find it.
I’d heard that the dirt from the East Wing demolition was being deposited three miles away, on a tree-lined island next to the Jefferson Memorial called East Potomac Park. So yesterday I drove around until I saw trucks and men in construction gear. They were congregating at an entrance to the public East Potomac Golf Links, where rounds of golf carried on as usual, except every few minutes, dump trucks entered the green.
The trucks would cut across the course to a cordoned-off site in the middle, where the grass had been torn away and replaced with piles of dirt. It did not look like much, but several employees at the site confirmed: This was not just any dirt. This was White House dirt. The precursor to the East Wing was constructed during Theodore Roosevelt’s administration in 1902 and updated during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration in the ’40s. Maybe this was not just White House dirt but Roosevelt-era dirt. I gazed upon the golfers going about their games. Do they know, I wondered, that they are in the presence of such particularly American soil?
I asked one employee what the plan was for all this dirt. “Oh, they’re gonna turn it into another hole,” he said. Other reporters have heard the same. But when I asked a different employee about it, he demurred; his boss drove by and said, “No comment” before my colleague Grace Buono had even asked him a question. Donald Trump has reportedly been considering rebranding East Potomac Golf Links as the Washington National Golf Course and giving it a makeover. He even mocked up a new golden logo for it that’s nearly identical to those of the courses he owns.
What a perfect ending for the once-East Wing dirt.
And not just any dirt:
Likely-asbestos-laden dirt.
______________________________________
James D. Kirylo has been a friend of mine for many years and has been a guest contributor to my blog in the past. Among other books, Kirylo is the author of Paulo Freire: The Many from Recife (2nd Edition), The Catholic Teacher: Teaching for Social Justice with Faith, Hope, and Love, and The Thoughtful Teacher: Making Connections with a Diverse Student Population.
In this unedited guest post, Kirylo underscores America’s terrible romance that results in an all-too-familiar scenario at schools nationwide.
***
The date August 27, 2025 for Annunciation Catholic Church and School community in Minneapolis, MN has marked its before-and-after-history date, as does May 24, 2022 for the Robb Elementary School community in Uvalde, TX, as does February 14, 2018 for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Community does in Parkland, FL, and as does December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School Community in Newtown, CT. The before—when innocence brightened the dinner table—to the after—when the empty chair hovers an unimaginable darkness, forever altering families and searing the collective consciousness of entire communities. And this is but a handful of school shootings, resulting in a total of 66 deaths, 57 injuries, and countless traumatized lives.
Once thought as one of the safest grounds in America, schools are now—and have been for some time—vulnerable spaces to unimaginable violence, provoking a very real fear among parents, students, and teachers. To the statistical extent of the problematic nature of the latter, one only needs to examine the comprehensive work of David Riedman, architect of K-12 Shooting Database (SSDB), thrusting an ominous spotlight on a uniquely American phenomenon. This year alone at this writing, there have been 173 gun-related incidents on K-12 properties.
After the terrorizing attack that took place at Annunciation, the now-tired-predictable-rhetoric-outrage ensued—for a day or two—and then onto the next news cycle. School shootings, do I dare say, have become a normalized happening, almost expected, with a desensitizing feel. But for the affected families, from Newton to Parkland, to Uvalde to Minneapolis, and numerous other American communities, the pain, the scars, the emptiness never goes away; it is just dealt with in whatever way possible. Yet, another school shooting will occur and another and another. This is not pessimistic thinking; it is facing reality straight in the face. And truth is exposed in reality. We are not doing enough to prevent this madness. That is the obvious truth.
Because America loves its guns; the bigger, the better; the more, have at it. America approves. The background check loopholes to obtain a firearm have more holes in it than a slice of Swiss Cheese. While the open carry of guns exposes the worst of us with a cheap sense of intimidation and aggression, the conceal carry allowances triggers uncertainty and a major headache in conducting police work. The more bullets that can be fired per minute, the better. Enter in the semi-automatic-assault style weapons. And for good measure, let’s be inclusive with bump stocks (enabling a rifle to have machine gun rapid-rate capability). Gun shows, gun auctions, gun stores, and around 78,000 licensed gun dealers, translates into more dealers of guns in America than there are Subway, Burger King, McDonald’s and Wendy’s establishments combined.
Yes, indeed, America loves its guns. And the mother lode validation for this love affair is the Second Amendment, perversely contorted to fit the interpretation propagated by the National Rifle Association. After all, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” How dare we question the multi-billion-dollar business that is the firearm industry. Capitalism at its ugly worst, leaving in its wake a killing field that has become America. Hyperbole? Just ask the folks at Annunciation, Robb Elementary, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Sandy Hook (not to mention those at that supermarket, nightclub, church, music festival, and the disturbing list goes on and on).
We don’t want to accept that the gun problem in the U.S. is a national security emergency and an epidemic, no more than one who won’t admit a problem with alcohol. We would rather wallow in our sickness; we would rather be dishonest with ourselves, defiantly peering at the lying image in the mirror. And like a crafty swindler with the gift of gab, we would rather slyly preach to the choir how everything and everyone else is the problem. Because we are in love.
_______________________________________
I was born in 1967 in Chalmette, Louisiana (St. Bernard Parish), a suburb of New Orleans so close to the city that is is the actual site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans.
I did not know that my father moved to Chalmette in the mid-1950s as part of the “white flight” from New Orleans.
I did not know why the St. Bernard-Orleans Parish line was so starkly white on the St. Bernard side and black on the Orleans side.
I did not know that the black teachers at my all-white elementary and middle schools were part of an effort for local officials to dodge federal mandates to racially integrate the schools (as in integrating the student body).
(I do remember seeing what I think was one black student in the special education, self-contained classroom of my elementary school– such an unusual, remarkable event that it puzzled my young mind to see him as a student assistant in the cafeteria, and the moment remains clearly in my memory to this day.)
I did not know that when I moved to a more rural section of St. Bernard Parish as I started high school that the African-American residents “down the road” knew full well of the dangers of trying to reside in certain sections of the parish (namely, Chalmette and Arabi).
I did not know that the school-superintendent uncle of one of my favorite teachers tried circa 1961 to create an “annex school” near the Arabi-New Orleans city line in order to enable white parents in the city to avoid racial integration by using school vouchers from New Orleans to enroll their children in an all-white public school just across the parish line.
I did not know that the proliferation of parochial schools in New Orleans was fueled by white flight from the New Orleans public schools.
I did not know that the reason I attended an all-girls public middle- and high school was for local officials to try to sham-integrate the St. Bernard public schools but to keep “those black boys away from our white girls.”
There’s a lot that I did not know and did not begin to learn until I was in my twenties and started asking questions.
But there were a lot of lessons that many white adults in my life tried to instill in me, lessons that indeed needed some serious questioning:
“You know property values will drop if the blacks start moving into a neighborhood.”
“It is better for a white woman to have a physically-abusive white boyfriend or husband than a black one, even if he does treat her well.”
“Interracial marriage is cause for a family disowning a child.”
“The city is a wreck because blacks are lazy and destroy everything.”
As I began reading about New Orleans officials’ cross-generational efforts to obliterate the black middle class in New Orleans (by, for example, by destroying multiple black owned businesses in order to build both the Desire housing project in 1956 and construct Interstate 10 in 1966), I felt like I had been lied to for decades– and my views as a white child and young adult repeatedly manipulated in order to purposely cement in me a sense of white superiority that no amount of personal maturity would ever shake.
Nevertheless, I am happy to say that such twisted, misplaced superiority is indeed and forever shaken in me and shown to be the mammoth lie that it is– the very lie that happens to fuel the white saviors who would impose themselves on black communities– including the center of the community:
The community school.
The community should be the final word on its schools, and when it is, those schools are successful, even in the face of racially-imposed hardship and intentional, multi-generational deprivation of basic resources, including physical space, current textbooks, and even ready supplies of toilet paper.
Such is the story of George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans– a school created as part of a school complex and housing project and build in New Orleans, Louisiana, to intentionally be a segregated school despite its opening post-Brown vs. Board of Education.
In her book, What We Stand to Lose: Bleack Teachers, the Culture They Created, and the Closure of a New Orleans School (2025, Beacon Press), Dr. Kristen Buras offers to readers a detailed history and daily life of G. W. Carver High School in New Orleans, from its inception to its white-savior closure in 2005, post-Katrina, when the state of Louisiana refused to grant the returning Carver community a charter to operate their own school. Buras details what no pro-charter, education reformer discussed at any length as regards traditionally-black New Orleans public schools: the repeated, intentional, multi-generational, systematic fiscal neglect of both the schools and the black community in New Orleans.
In contrast, Buras not only discusses these issues; she brings them to life through her numerous interviews with Carver faculty and staff, a life that begins even before Carver High School opened its doors in the 1958-59 school year.
Right out of the gate, the community served by Carver High School– families residing in the Desire Housing Project– had to face the reality that the project homes were poorly constructed and were starting to fall apart due to a lack of concrete foundations on swampland, no less.
Indeed, the location of what was known as the “Carver Complex” was originally a Maroon colony for escaped African slaves in a backswamp area that 1973 Carver graduate describes as “really not made for residential living.”
Separate was not equal, but to the Carver community, it was theirs, and in the midst of profound racism, the faculty and staff at Carver High devoted themselves to their students and the students’ families, who also happened to be their neighbors.
What speaks loudly to the teacher commitment to Carver High students, as Buras notes, is their multi-decade commitment. Despite being chronically underfunded and under-maintained across its almost-fifty years pre-Katrina, Carver High School had a very low teacher turnover.
In What We Stand to Lose, readers are introduced to the precise and disciplined teachings of music teacher Yvonne Busch, who was known for offering free music lessons during summer break. Former student Leonard Smith produced a documentary about Busch, who retired in 1983 after a 32-years at Carver. We learn of the 38-year career of social studies teacher, Lenora Condoll, who wanted so much for her students to experience the larger world that she organized fundraisers to take her students on Close-Up trips to Washington, DC, and who, on a practical note, showed students that they could make a dressy wardrobe out of a few basic items, including her “black, cashmere skirt.” We meet Enos Hicks, head coach of track and football and athletic director once Carver High opened. By that time, Hicks had been teaching for twenty years already. When Hicks’ students saw “his bag of medals” for track and field, they believed that they, too, could excel and receive their own medals.
These are real teachers whose legacy is undeniable among Carver alumni. They inspired their students to hold their heads high in self-respect despite the cultural pressures and dangers to be pressed into a Whites Only mold of “forever less-than.”
Carver High School was at most 30 minutes from my own high school. I had no idea such quality against the odds was so nearby.
In order to correct the record in my own mind, I need to read and reread histories like the one Buras skillfully offers in What We Stand to Lose. So do any would-be, white saviors who pretend that the problems of New Orleans schools are somehow unrelated to decades of entrenched racism within the selfsame city.
In pretending that school and community quality can and should somehow be surgically separate, we all stand to lose so much.
On April 11, 2025, California teen Adam Raine took his own life.
In seeking answers, Raine’s parents discovered his eight-month, intense history of confiding in ChatGPT– including not only exploring suicide as an option but also attempting suicide multiple times.
On August 27, 2025, Raine’s parents sued Open AI for ChatGPT’s alleged role in their son’s death.
As the lawsuit demonstrates, a number of ChatGPT responses arguably encouraged Raine in that direction.
The details about how artificial intelligence was able to both ingratiate itself with and systematically and stealthily advise the very destruction of a human being are both sobering and shocking.
Parents and teachers must take note.
Below are excerpts from the 40-page suit filed in California Superior Court (San Francisco):
****
The suit continues with the number of opportunities that Open AI’s monitoring systems failed to flag Raine’s suicidal discussions and planning. On the contrary, ChatGPT actively encouraged and actively assisted in the planning of Raine’s suicide attempts.
One key conclusion:
Parents and teachers must take note.
AI is already too powerful to continue to evade comprehensive regulation.
__________________________________
Ghislaine Maxwell is not a victim. She is a sexual predator who for at least a decade trafficked minor females, chiefly for financier Jeffrey Epstein, but also for others to abuse, including herself.
From the June 28, 2022, press release about Maxwell’s sentencing (US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York):
Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Conspiring With Jeffrey Epstein To Sexually Abuse Minors
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GHISLANE MAXWELL was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court by United States Circuit Judge Alison J. Nathan to 240 months in prison for her role in a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade. MAXWELL was previously found guilty on December 29, 2021, following a one-month jury trial, of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.
…
According to the allegations in the Indictment, court documents, and evidence presented at trial:
From at least 1994, up to and including in or about 2004, GHISLAINE MAXWELL assisted, facilitated, and participated in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to MAXWELL and Epstein to be under the age of 18. The victims were as young as 14 years old when they were groomed and abused by MAXWELL and Epstein, both of whom knew that their victims were in fact minors. As a part and in furtherance of their scheme to abuse minor victims, MAXWELL and Epstein enticed and caused minor victims to travel to Epstein’s residences in different states, which MAXWELL knew and intended would result in their grooming for and subjection to sexual abuse.
MAXWELL enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused in multiple ways. For example, MAXWELL attempted to befriend certain victims by asking them about their lives, their schools, and their families, and taking them to the movies or on shopping trips. MAXWELL also acclimated victims to Epstein’s conduct simply by being present for victim interactions with Epstein, which put victims at ease by providing the assurance and comfort of an adult woman who seemingly approved of Epstein’s behavior. Additionally, Epstein offered to help some victims by paying for travel and/or educational opportunities, and MAXWELL encouraged certain victims to accept Epstein’s assistance. As a result, victims were made to feel indebted and believed that MAXWELL and Epstein were trying to help them. MAXWELL also normalized and facilitated sexual abuse for a victim by discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when the victim was undressed, and encouraging the victim to massage Epstein.
As MAXWELL and Epstein intended, these grooming behaviors left minor victims vulnerable and susceptible to sexual abuse by Epstein. MAXWELL was then present for certain sexual encounters between minor victims and Epstein, such as interactions where a minor victim was undressed, and ultimately was present for sex acts perpetrated by Epstein on minor victims. That abuse included sexualized massages during which a minor victim was fully or partially nude, as well as group sexualized massages of Epstein involving a minor victim where MAXWELL was present. In some instances, MAXWELL participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims.
Ultimately minor victims were subjected to sexual abuse that included, among other things, the touching of a victim’s breasts or genitals, placing a sex toy such as a vibrator on a victim’s genitals, directing a victim to touch Epstein while he masturbated, and directing a victim to touch Epstein’s genitals. MAXWELL and Epstein’s victims were groomed or abused at Epstein’s residences in New York, Florida, and New Mexico, as well as MAXWELL’s residence in London, England.
In the earlier phase of the conspiracy, from at least approximately 1994 through approximately 2001, MAXWELL and Epstein identified vulnerable girls, typically from single-mother households and difficult financial circumstances. This earlier phase required the defendant and Epstein to identify one girl at a time to target for grooming and abuse. In the later phase, from approximately 2001 until at least approximately 2004, MAXWELL and Epstein enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls to visit Epstein’s Palm Beach Residence to engage in sex acts with Epstein, after which Epstein, MAXWELL, or another employee of Epstein’s would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash. MAXWELL and Epstein encouraged one or more of those victims to travel with Epstein with the intention that the victim engage in sex acts with Epstein. Moreover, and in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, MAXWELL and Epstein also paid certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein. In this way, MAXWELL and Epstein created a network of underage victims for Epstein to sexually exploit.
* * *
In addition to the prison sentence, MAXWELL, 60, was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $750,00 fine.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maurene Comey, Alison Moe, Lara Pomerantz, and Andrew Rohrbach are in charge of the prosecution.
Epstein and Maxwell prosecutor, Maurene Comey, who also prosecuted Sean “Diddy” Combs, was abruptly fired on July 17, 2025, without explanation. However, as the BBC points out:
Her exit comes as Trump and the justice department’s leader, Attorney General Pam Bondi, face backlash over the administration’s handling of files relating to Epstein.
Now, Maxwell is angling for immunity from future prosecution as a condition for her testimony before Congress. As the July 29, 2025, Reuters reports, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed Maxwell’s testimony, swiftly denied her request.
Still, some media outlets are trying to shift the narrative in order to reinvent convicted sexual predator Maxwell as a victim. This June 29, 2025, Mahomet Daily article confronts that attempted narrative shift by including victim interviews as well as links to court documents, including Maxwell’s appeal to the US Supreme Court.
Maxwell is no innocent. That narrative is trash. Some abhorrent excerpts:
Maxwell’s grooming tactics followed a consistent pattern that prosecutors called her “playbook.” She would approach victims with offers of financial opportunities, fake modeling auditions, promises of investments in careers or travel, and educational assistance.
The grooming process was gradual and calculated. Maxwell would first befriend the girls, taking them shopping for expensive clothes, including lingerie from Victoria’s Secret, discussing their personal lives, and gradually introducing sexual topics into conversation.
She would expose herself to victims and encourage them to undress in front of her, normalizing inappropriate behavior.
She created an environment where sexual abuse came to seem “casual and normal” through patient psychological manipulation.
…
Like many of Maxwell and Epstein’s victims, this was not the only encounter. “Jane” said Maxwell and Epstein would take advantage of her during massages, where Epstein would also masturbate, and that she was subject to abuse with sex toys and oral sex orgies where Maxwell would participate with other young girls.
“Carolyn,” also 14 years old, testified that she ended up at Epstein’s home after a friend said she could make money.
Maxwell personally groped Carolyn’s naked body, telling her she had a “great body for Epstein and his friends” after touching her breasts, hips, and buttocks. Carolyn returned to Epstein’s home hundreds of times over the next several years, with Maxwell arranging appointments and sometimes handing over cash payments of $300 per session. The abuse continued until Carolyn turned 18.
…
Maxwell’s manipulation of Kate was particularly calculated. She would ask Kate afterward, “How did it go? Did you have fun? Was it good?” treating the sexual abuse as a casual social interaction.
This happened more than once, with Epstein raping the girl more than once. “Kate” said, Maxwell told her, “You’re such a good girl. … He really likes you.”
…
Annie Farmer, the only victim to testify under her real name, was 16 when she encountered Maxwell and Epstein at his New Mexico ranch in 1996. Her story revealed Maxwell’s hands-on participation in sexual abuse.
Farmer, met Epstein through her sister, Maria, who was also one of Epstein’s victims.
Epstein asked Annie to visit New Mexico, which she was hesitant about until she learned a woman, Maxwell, would also be there. After Maxwell showed Farmer how to massage Epstein’s feet, she offered to give Farmer a massage.
…
Another survivor, Sarah Ransome, who was recruited at age 22, said Epstein and Maxwell threatened to kill her family if she tried to escape. After fleeing to the UK in 2007, Ransome told the judge she has proof Epstein searched for her a decade later.
The Department of Justice recognized that Epstein had over 1,000 victims in the July memo.
Jeffrey Epstein made substantial financial payments to Maxwell totaling at least $30.7 million between 1999 and 2007, with prosecutors stating he transferred approximately $23 million to her during the timeframe of their criminal conspiracy.
…
The jury in Maxwell’s criminal trial was unanimous in their verdict, consisting of 12 jurors (6 women and 6 men) who deliberated for approximately 40 hours across six days before reaching their decision on December 29, 2021.
Guilty Verdicts:
- Count 1: Conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity
- Count 4: Transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity
- Count 5: Conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors
- Count 6: Sex trafficking of a minor
Release the files.
Online testing, AI platforms, and internet capabilities in general have made cheating in and across academic courses so very easy.
For some, the entire college experience is little more than one huge cheat fest.
The reckoning comes when such students realize that in cultivating cheating habits, they have actually cheated themselves. They feel insecure (rightly so) about graduating on empty– having a degree but not the knowledge they were supposed to have acquired and self-discipline they were supposed to have cultivated by legitimately completing their own work.
And they feel like academic frauds because, well, they are.
Here’s a brief, November 2024 posting from Reddit, entitled, “Cheated my way through most of college. Am I screwed?”:
Title pretty much explains it. I’m in my first semester of senior year as a Undergrad Finance major and have cheated a lot of my way through college. It depends on the courses though. Some classes have in-person exams and so I have always studied enough to pass those type of tests. Any exam online has been cheated through. Most of my HW (homework) I cheat on too. I feel like a failure, and I am worried that I will be underprepared for the real job market. I feel like I have a grasp on a lot of general concepts in Accounting, and Finance in general, but when it comes to the nitty gritty and hard stuff, I feel like I will be lost. My one hope is that I have heard a lot of what you learn is on the job, and being clueless going into the job market is somewhat expected. Anybody here that can give me hope, or am I actually screwed?
Also this post is not me trying to gain pity from anyone. I acknowledge this was solely on me and no one else. I am just so anxious right now about the outcome of my future that I am holding on to strings about possibilities.
The post has a number of responses. Here is one pointed take:
You feel like a failure because you are. People saying you can just grind and learn what you need on the job are missing a key point: you didn’t have the initiative to grind while in school and you won’t suddenly learn how to grind once you get a job.
And another:
I think that one of the biggest things you should think about at this point in your life/career is whether or not you are willing to develop the skills to LEARN, not just PASS. You are entering the job market with a knowledge deficit, which may hold you back in the short term. Now is a pivotal time for you to work on redeveloping your learning skills and improve your ability to think critically about subjects you might not have cared about. Once you graduate (assuming you are not expelled for academic dishonesty), try your hardest to “retrain” yourself to learn. Take some free LinkedIn Learning classes. Try learning a new hands-on skill or language. Whatever you choose to learn, work on discipline and comprehension. This will ensure that you’re quick on your feet to learn new skills when it’s crunch time.
In another post, categorized as “True off my chest” and entitled, “I cheated my way thru college” (August 2023), the writer asks for advice on how to deal with the guilt:
It’s not something I’m proud of, but I figured I’d share my story here anonymously and maybe get some advice or understanding from you all.
During my time in college, I was overwhelmed with coursework and deadlines, and I thought cheating was a quick way out. It started with small stuff like searching answers on quizlet, but it eventually spiraled into more serious cheating like plagiarizing and using ChatGPT for essays and google for exam questions.
Looking back, I can see how wrong and unfair it was to myself and others who worked hard to earn their grades honestly. It’s a regret I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life. As messed up as it sounds, I have to admit that I didn’t really learn much from college because of all the cheating. Sure, I passed exams and got decent grades, but deep down, I know I missed out on the real learning experience. College is supposed to be about growth, expanding your horizons, and gaining knowledge, both academically and personally. But with my constant cheating, I missed the chance to truly challenge myself, discover my passions, and develop critical thinking skills. It’s like I took the easy way out, and now I regret it big time. I am now graduating this month with a 3.6 GPA.
Has anyone else been through something similar? How did you deal with the guilt, and how did you move forward from it? Any advice or support would be greatly appreciated.
This posting has only one comment, basically saying no big deal because “undergrad is all about showing up.” This response misses the point; the writer is confessing to not really “showing up” and struggling with the resultant regret.
There are those who also brag about getting away with cheating and being proud to do so. Interestingly, in one such case, the writer apparently directed incredible time, money and energy into cheating (and covering up the cheating) instead of devoting the same toward honest academics– and ends with stating, “Everyone thinks I’m smart but I know I’m a total impostor.” From March 2022, another “True off my chest” post, “I’ve cheated half of my degree at university”:
This is a throwaway account but I had to confess it to someone.
As the topic says, I’ve cheated half of my degree and I don’t regret it. I’ve never cheated during high school and I was considered a good student (always between 2nd and 3rd in my class) but once I got into university (Health/Science profession) I was overwhelmed by the huge loads of material in such a few time that I started to spend my time searching ways to cheat instead of learning them.
You might be thinking “oh, everybody has done that before” but you can’t believe the amount of money I’ve spent buying all kinds of gadgets and my main methods were:
– For topics where we had to use a calculator, I bought an HP50G so I could insert all texts/formulas/whatever needed inside it. For those who don’t know, this calculator is well known by Engineering students but my teachers from the Health university didn’t have a clue you can cheat with it.
– For topics where I had to learn lots of terminologies, texts, etc, I bought those spy earpieces and recorded everything on an mp3. I came to a point where I bought one of those where you can switch/stop tracks with your toes. Yes, I looked like James Bond. A few years ago I was moving and decided to get rid of it all since my wife was asking what was all that stuff and I had 15 earpieces of all kinds and brands imaginable. Guys, I wasn’t even buying it from a “local shop”, I was buying directly from the reseller in China.
Roast me if you want, but I don’t regret a thing and it has been years since I have my degree and never told a soul about it. Everyone thinks I’m smart but I know I’m a total impostor.
Numerous comments to this one, including, “Always good to hear a health care professional cheated his way through school,” and “All the time researching gadgets, you could have been studying and actually learning.. especially in a medical field. I hope you’re not an actual doctor.”
And so:
“I don’t regret it” but “I had to confess it to someone.”
Hmm.
Cheating one’s academic life away carries quite the self-reproachful hangover– as it should.
The best course of action: Don’t start walking this path in the first place.
And if you have, college student, even though it may be difficult in the short run, for the sake of your long run, cut it out.
_______________________________________
In June 2025, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry signed into law two bills aimed at giving Louisiana teachers a permanent pay raise (as opposed to the string of annual $2k stipends approved three years in a row).
The first bill, HB 473 (now Act 222) became law on June 16, 2025, and involves liquidating three constitutionally-protected education trust funds in order to redirect the money toward paying down $2B in debt (“unfunded accrued liability,” or UAL) held by the Teachers retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL). (For further explanation and back story, see this November 2024 TRSL archive).
Specifically, HB 473/Act 222 calls for the liquidation of these three education trust funds:
- Education Excellence Fund (tobacco settlement funds)
- Louisiana Education Quality Fund (federal effort at equitable mineral revenues for seven coastal states)
- Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund (i.e., 8(g) grants)
HB 473/ Act 222 stipulates that any monies exceeding the $2B redirected to TRSL are to be expended on purposes in keeping with the stipulations of the original fund legislation (i.e., pre-K12 “instructional enhancement” in the case of Education Excellence Fund money; “research efforts” and “endowed chairs for eminent scholars” and the university level in the case of the Louisiana Quality Educational Fund).
The annual amount that each school system would have directed toward paying TRSL debt is to be redirected toward “a permanent salary increase, plus any related benefits, of two thousand two hundred fifty dollars for certificated personnel and one thousand one hundred twenty-five dollars for noncertificated personnel, as provided by law.”
The bill notes that non-TRSL teachers and personnel (i.e., those at charter schools) are to receive the same raises and that the state will cover any shortfall for schools and districts that cannot cover the raises using the amount that they would have otherwise committed to TRSL debt.
HB 473/ Act 222 also states that the constitutional amendment is not meant to replace the work of the state board of ed and the Minimum Foundation Program (MFP) funding but that the amendment will serve as a fiscal placeholder, so to speak, until the state board accounts for the permament raises in its MFP formula.
Keep in mind that HB 473/ Act 222 requires passage of a constitutional amendment to liquidate the three education trust funds at the center of this permanent raise plan. The public is expected to vote on this measure in April 2026.
If the constitutional amendment passes, the state-funded, permanent raises are scheduled to take effect for the 2026-27 school year.
The second bill, HB 466 (Act 266), was signed into law on June 20, 2025, and succinctly details how the raise works:
Moreover, it includes specifics about how schools and districts might spend excess funds (that is, money left over after instituting the permanent raises), including using such funds to enhance school security; purchase technology; provide summer enrichment; fund early childhood education for at-risk children; employ personnel “who qualify for differentiated compensation allocations in critical shortage areas,” and/or even providing an additional, uniform salary increase to certificated personnel, noncertificated personnel, or both.
Again, the funding behind HB 466/ Act 366 is detailed in HB 473/ Act 222, which depends upon public approval via public vote on a constitutional amendment.
On March 29, 2025, the teacher raise was part of Amendment 2, one of four constitutional amendments that Louisiana voters soundly rejected by 2 to 1 margins.
That go-round, the language for Amendment 2 included none of the detail provided by successfully-passed bills already signed into law prior to the vote, and the teacher raise was one of a number of proposed constitutional alterations piled together in one all-too-generally-stated, crowded, hodge-podge of an amendment:
Do you support an amendment to revise Article VII of the Constitution of Louisiana including revisions to lower the maximum rate of income tax, increase income tax deductions for citizens over sixty-five, provide for a government growth limit, modify operation of certain constitutional funds, provide for property tax exemptions retaining the homestead exemption and exemption for religious organizations, provide a permanent teacher salary increase by requiring a surplus payment to teacher retirement debt, and make other modifications? (Amends Article VII, Sections 1 through 28; Adds Article VII, Sections 29 through 42).
That first go-round reminded me of a poorly-constructed survey option. Voters were backed into a motley, pressure-sale corner in altering the state constitution, and they overwhelmingly chose “No, thank you.”
In a July 08, 2025, letter to TRSL and addressed to teachers, Landry acknowledges the Amendment 2 failure and outlines his effort to improve this second go-round:
The second go-round is much improved.
HB 473 will be one of five proposed Louisiana constitutional amendments appearing on the April 18, 2025, ballot. An additional proposed amendment will appear on the November 03, 2025, ballot, for a total of six more possible constitutional amendments for Louisiana voters to consider in 2025:
April 2026 will be here before we know it.
We’ll see what Louisiana voters decide.
_________________________________
deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog
New Orleans: Leah Chase School to Remain Open in Unanimous Vote
New Orleans has only one traditional, board-run public school: The Leah Chase School (TLC), named for renowned local chef, the late Leah Chase.
On January 08, 2026, a unanimous board vote allows TLC to remain open for at least another two years.
The school has been in operation for less than two years following charter-school, Lafayette Academy, losing its charter in January 2024 and then-NOLA Public Schools superintendent, Avis Williams, choosing to directly run the school as opposed to permanently closing it for want of a replacement charter operator. The scheduled closure naturally upset the community. Communities want stability, not the profound disruption that happens all too often in this “charter experiment” city when its schools are closed, reopened, and closed again.
And so, the TLC community made its preference for its only board-run public school loud and clear before the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB)– the publicly-elected entity in charge of the school and required to have public meetings including public comment.
To read much of the public comment at the OPSB December 18, 2025, meeting, and access the full video, see my January 02, 2026, post. The full video of the January 08, 2026, board meeting can be found at the end of this post.
The OPSB vote on whether to close TLC was initially scheduled for December 18, 2025, but the board delayed its vote until January 08, 2026.
Not only did the public show up to make their voices heard; one member of the New Orleans community, Karen Oser Edmunds, offered to financially support the school with a $1.5M donation provided the board agree to keep TLC open for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years and spend the money only on the school. Edmunds communicated her offer to the board the very day of the meeting, which, arguably, threw the board off in the face of the funds-are-short argument.
Based on board member comments in the January 08, 2026, meeting, I believe the members wanted to figure out how to move forward in a way that addresses both the fiscal needs of the school and the desire of the community to preserve its only board-run school. (For example, listen to board member Olin Parker’s comments at 1:53:00.)
The board chose to schedule a special meeting for January 08, 2026– but not before it got an educated and informed earful from many parents, students, teachers, and community advocates. They questioned whether the board really wanted a direct-run school. They questioned how the board was spending public money, They highlighted the apparent double standard of charter schools having five years to prove themselves, not two, and of charter schools with F grades not being shuttered. They also questioned OPSB choosing to dip into its reserves to rescue three charter schools.
They reminded the board that the all-charter “experiment” was forced upon the New Orleans public, not chosen by the public, and that state-run schools were supposed to be returned to the district school board after five years. However, no return to district happened; instead, all New Orleans schools became charter schools, leaving the public with no “school choice” at all except charters, with their closures and uncertified staff that, in many cases, were temp teachers with no community roots and no intention to stay.
In short, the TLC public did its homework.
As of January 08, 2026, such closure is not the case.
Specifically, the OPSB voted unanimously to keep TLC open for two more years provided the board receives at least $865,000 in donations by January 15, 2026. The member who proposed the initial motion, finance chair Olin Parker, clarified to the public, “…As the finance chair, if somebody is promising me money, and I’m voting on a decision that impacts the lives of children, I would like some reasonable — I would like to have reasonable confidence that that money is real” (1:41:28).
In that same meeting, Edmunds’ initial offer of $1.5M– which had been increased to $2M– was accepted by the board, as was $225,000 from the Chase family, which advertised a stability fund for the school, and another donation of $150 from a community member.
Both the Edmunds and Chase contributions require “…the school board to provide to the public an annual accounting report detailing how these funds will be or have been spent. The first annual report shall be due May 31, 2026. The second report shall be due May 31, 2027, and the third report shall be due May 31, 2028” (1:56:40).
Such public accountability is a feature of traditional, board-run schools, not charter schools.
Edmunds’ son, Chris, who has a child enrolled at TLC, commented, “My mother feels that this school is working, and she is prepared to write a check tomorrow, that will go to the bank tomorrow. And, thank you, board members, for all your hard work on this. Thank you, superintendent, for all your hard work on this. Thank you to everyone here… and to the Chase family…” (1:57:45).
The board also voted to suspend the need to approve every donation to TLC according to its usual protocol of having each donation as an agenda item requiring a board vote. Instead, the total amount raised each month would be summarily approved in the regular board meeting, provided that the donations were not contingent upon a fiscal contribution by the district itself.
In addressing legislators in attendance at the January 08, 2026, meeting, Parker also noted that “…It is my understanding that Level-1 MFP (Minimum Foundation Program) (per-pupil funding) in this state has been raised once in the last sixteen years. So my hope is that the energy in this room will transfer… to Representative Mena, to Senator Duplessis, and all of their colleagues, to increase level-1 MFP funding. …We have a stagnant MFP… we expect local revenues to go down….. We had a settlement with the city that would bring us $20M for our fund balance that was reneged upon, so we have all of these financial pressures on us as a district…. It would be easier if those financial constraints were lifted via help of our state partners or our local partners…. We will be back in this place in two years if we cannot address the enrollment issue…. If this school continues to exist for the next two years, we will need this same amount of energy channeled into getting students into the building, getting the type of community involvement that Mr. Marshall has been talking about for years. We will need that for the ongoing sustainability of this school” (1:47:20).
Raising funds for the short term is not all that the public has been doing. The TLC community has been actively working to boost enrollment by getting the word out to families with elementary-aged children about the availability of seats at New Orleans’ only traditional public school. One of the concerns of some OPSB members is low enrollment at TLC. However, the stability of the school is an important factor to parents who are choosing schools for their children, so it is understandable that TLC parents (and faculty and staff, for that matter) would have to consider other schools if they thought TLC might close at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
School stability is key.
In honoring the will of the community on January 08, 2026, OPSB chose to promote and protect a stability that has been seriously wanting in New Orleans public education for over two decades.
_____________________________________________
The Main Round period for K-12 applications to choose schools for the 2026-27 school year closes on January 23, 2026. Click here for more information.
______________________________________________