LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – Lafayette Parish Schools are investigating a Lafayette Parish teacher after a post made on the Facebook site, Whatz Goin On in Acadiana. The investigation centers around a post Ossun Elementary educator Julie Colley made on the Facebook page.

Lafayette Parish School System Public Information Officer, Allison Dickerson, said “LPSS is aware of this situation and is conducting a thorough investigation into the matter. Because this is a personnel issue, no further information will be shared.”

The post has since been deleted from the page.

The State NAACP Vice President Marja Broussard has released a statement on the comments made by the LPSS Teacher.

“We are appalled and hurt, but sadly not surprised to learn someone entrusted to guide and nurture our children, so easily shared such hatred for Black and Brown people, in a public forum. The racist anti-Black mentality has been alive in our community for decades, and we will stand up against it every time until it is eradicated. We will not tolerate this bigotry that continues to traumatize our youth and further the narrative that our Black children are second-class citizens. The NAACP Louisiana State Conference, along with our district leaders and members, are calling on the Lafayette Parish School Board and Superintendent Irma Trosclair to institute racial and cultural diversity trainings for all staff immediately. We demand something finally be done to ensure schools are more racially diverse in students, staff and leadership. It is of grave concern that Ms. Julie Colley is the disciplinarian charged with monitoring and educating Black and Brown students who are assigned to In-School Suspension, at Ossun Elementary School (an elementary school with majority Black students, but minority Black staff). 

We are calling on Superintendent Trosclair to immediately remove Ms. Colley from any ability to further traumatize students, especially Black and Brown, Indigenous, and immigrants or from any ability to continue to teach this mentality to innocent students trusted in her care. Especially since history has proven the school-to-prison pipeline is perpetuated by this racist ideology Ms. Colley so comfortably displayed to all of the world – that Blacks will always be the “N-word,” and only worthy of enslavement, prisons, and torn-down businesses on the North Side of town, and where it’s too dark for any human dignity after 6:30 p.m.”