4.4.25 – WDSU – NEW ORLEANS
Louisiana lawmakers filing new bills ahead of the legislative session on April 14th.
A state senator proposes a bill to regulate New Orleans’ use of school zone cameras, while another bill aims to mandate anti-hazing courses for college freshmen.
New Orleans city officials may face felony charges for improper use of school zone cameras if a new bill proposed by State Senator Stewart Cathey passes.
“There’s no teeth in the law and I said okay you want to play that game? Then I’m going to put teeth in the law,” Cathey said.
Senate Bill 99 would make it unlawful for city officials to operate cameras and ticket drivers in school zones without a cooperative endeavor agreement between the school system and the city.
“You just have to split the money, I don’t care what percentage goes where but you have to make an agreement between the school district and the local government through the form of a signed CEA before you can ever turn on cameras,” Cathey said.
The actions of city officials have some drivers frustrated.
“We would be supportive like Shannon said of enforcing those speed zones where they are necessary to keep little ones safe but it just feels like a money grab right now,” one driver said.
“It doesn’t really feel like they actually care about keeping the kids safe so much as collecting a check,” another driver said.
New Orleans City officials issuing this statement:
“We have been negotiating a CEA with the School Board since August 2024. During these negotiations, the School Board requested information regarding collection and fees, in which we worked with the City’s vendor to provide. Additionally, we have agreed to a 60/40 split. The City continues to work diligently with our school partners to finalize a CEA. The school zone cameras remained on during negotiations for the safety and wellbeing of our school children in the City of New Orleans.”
In higher education, House Bill 279, known as the Caleb Wilson Act, would require incoming freshmen to complete a one-credit-hour anti-hazing course within their first two semesters if passed.
State Representative and bill author, Delisha Boyd said, “We don’t expect to bury our kids, we expect our kids to bury us.”
This bill follows the tragic death of Southern University student Caleb Wilson, who was killed during a fraternity hazing ritual.
“It’s a one-credit course, it will start in August of 2025. All incoming freshmen will have to take this course and anyone that is a member of any Greek letter organization, the band, or sports will have two semesters to get that class under their belt,” Boyd said.
Some first-year students at a local university believe the proposed bill is necessary.
“It’s really tragic people join fraternities, sororities, and clubs for a sense of community and belonging and I think a class would be really important to help,” one student said.
“I agree, I think it’s becoming normalized really kind of no different than assaulting someone so I think that’s really important,” another student said.