State of Louisiana Joins Federal Lawsuit Against Jefferson Parish School Board Over Violations of Ka’Mauri Harrison’s Constitutional Rights

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has filed a legal motion for the State of Louisiana to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed by Nyron Harrison, the father of Ka’Mauri Harrison. Ka’Mauri is a Jefferson Parish elementary student who was recommended for expulsion after he safely and responsibly moved a BB gun his younger brother had accidentally knocked over while Ka’Mauri was participating in a virtual class session. Ka’Mauri was taking a test from his bedroom.

Attorney General Landry has long maintained that an individual’s private home is not an extension of the classroom, and he has taken a number of actions to defend Ka’Mauri and other students who were sent into a bureaucratic abyss for no reason and told there is no way out. In the motion filed on Friday at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Attorney General Landry stated that the Jefferson Parish School Board (JPSB) has interpreted and applied state law improperly by imposing mandatory expulsion statutes to conduct that is neither prohibited nor even covered by existing school discipline statutes. In doing so, the Board is violating the rights of students and their parents to privacy in their homes and expanding the law in a manner never contemplated by the Legislature.

“The Jefferson Parish School Board has violated state law over and over. It is unfortunate that we have had to go to such lengths to correct the Board’s egregious behavior and misinterpretation of the law,” said Attorney General Landry. “The Legislature even unanimously passed a law expressly reaffirming that the home is not school property and discipline policies cannot treat it the same. The Board’s dogged insistence upon continuing to do so is not only senseless and wrong, but it is also a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Attorney General Landry’s motion further argues that the JPSB failed to comply with La. R.S. 17:416 and the Ka’Mauri Harrison Act and that the JPSB violated the Due Process rights of its students (and their parents).