A lawsuit is asking a judge to temporarily stop the closure of Comeaux High School because it claims the Lafayette Parish School System and its board violated open meeting laws, didn’t follow its own policy and violated the ethics rules.
The lawsuit, filed by Suzanne Lajaunie last week in the 15th Judicial District Court, states that the closure of Comeaux will cause irreparable harm to stakeholders, including students, and that the decision “demonstrates a lack of transparency, accountability and adherence to principles expected of” school board members.
Lajaunie filed the motion without the representation of an attorney but told The Acadiana Advocate she is working to hire someone.
A spokesperson with the Lafayette Parish School System said it was aware of the filing but does not comment on pending litigation.
The petition will go before Judge Valerie Gotch Garrett at 9 a.m. Monday. It asks that Garrett issue a temporary restraining order to keep Comeaux from closing, issue a preliminary injunction to maintain status quo, declare the school board vote on the Comeaux closure null and void and order the board to reconsider the issue in compliance with open meetings law and district policy.
The School Board voted 5-2 at its March 12 meeting to take Comeaux offline at the end of the year, rezone its nearly 700 students and convert the campus into the Ovey Comeaux Workforce Innovation Academy. The campus would, by the start of the 2028-2029 school year, house the district’s career center, E.J. Sam Accelerated Academy and use the athletic facilities for the district’s sports needs.
The vote came after nearly three hours of public comment from more than 80 people who all spoke out against the decision. Since then, families, students and Comeaux supporters have continued to voice their concerns and grievances about the change online and in protests.
The lawsuit asks the judge to pause or overturn the decision because it claims the board violated policy and state law.
The School Board violated state open meetings law by having “side conversations and possible side deliberations that were not audible to the public,” according to the lawsuit. It also raises concern that deliberations may have occurred outside of a public meeting, citing comments from School Board Member Kate Labue who said there had been “ongoing” proposals about Comeaux High.
It also states that there were public participation and procedural deficiencies when members of the public wishing to comment on the issue were restricted to statements only and not allowed to ask questions, a long-standing policy of the school board. It also raised concerns about whether all interested members of the public were allowed to speak after Board President Hannah Smith Mason said the comment period would end when the end of a visible line was reached.
The lawsuit also alleges the School Board violated the district’s school closure policy. It states there should be a public hearing and an opportunity for full discussion before a school is closed, and information should be shared about the size and configuration of schools receiving students and the cost and funding sources of any necessary construction for receiving those students. None of that happened, according to the lawsuit.
Lajaunie also filed a complaint with the h Board of Ethics, according to the lawsuit. She notes that Labue’s husband, Jared Labue, sits on the Lafayette Charter Foundation Board as a volunteer and claims that Kate Labue should have excused herself from the vote since rezoned students could seek out charter school seats instead of remaining in LPSS.
The lawsuit filed by Lajaunie, who is the guardian of a Comeaux High student, claims that closing the school “carries significant consequences for students, families and the Lafayette Parish community.”
She also raised a concern that some school board members who voted to close the school don’t have students enrolled in LPSS but rather in area private schools. She wrote in the filing that while it is not illegal, “when decisions are made by individuals who have elected to remove their own families from the very system they govern, it raises legitimate concerns regarding detachment from the real and immediate impacts of those decisions.”
The closure of Comeaux will cause irreparable harm if a judge does not intervene, the lawsuit claims.