WALKER, La. (AP) — A Louisiana public school principal has issued an apology and requested leave for his actions towards a student regarding her religious beliefs after a video of her dancing at an off-campus party surfaced online. The incident occurred following Walker High School’s Homecoming festivities on September 30th when a hired DJ recorded and posted the video on social media. Principal Jason St. Pierre, in response, informed the 17-year-old student, who is also the student government president and a scholarship candidate, that she would be removed from her position and that he would no longer recommend her for college scholarships. St. Pierre took it a step further during a meeting with the student and assistant principal, where he printed out Bible verses with highlighted sections and questioned the student’s friends’ religious beliefs, as reported by The Advocate.
However, St. Pierre later retracted his decision in a statement released on the Livingston Parish Public Schools district Facebook page on Sunday. He apologized to the student’s family, rescinded his disciplinary plans, and addressed his mention of religion. St. Pierre acknowledged that it is not his responsibility to determine others’ religious beliefs, stating that it should be up to the individual.
Both the student and her mother claim that St. Pierre initiated the conversation about religion, not the student. They also raised concerns about the timing of the scholarship application deadline, which was on October 3rd, and questioned whether St. Pierre could have reinstated his endorsement sooner, according to The Advocate.
Following these events, district officials announced on Monday that St. Pierre had requested to take leave for the remainder of the 2023-2024 school year. Livingston Parish Public Schools Superintendent Joe Murphy confirmed the request and stated that the district is awaiting the necessary paperwork to process it.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’); fbq(‘init’, ‘1621685564716533’); fbq(‘track’, “PageView”); var _fbPartnerID = null; if (_fbPartnerID !== null) { fbq(‘init’, _fbPartnerID + ”); fbq(‘track’, “PageView”); }
Denial of responsibility! Vigour Times is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
