Teacher Smackdown

Poor New Orleans is getting poorer. Sixth grade teacher Gabriel C. Hood, 28, was arrested on charges that he stole money from a student community service group, the Tchefuncte Middle School Builder’s Club. The club is cosponsored by the Kiwanis and gets middle school students to participate in community service projects to help other kids, seniors, the disabled, and the poor.

Hood is charged with taking over $1,100 from student dues and fundraisers and buying a $450 camera with the club’s money. It is tempting to call him Robin Hood, but that legendary figure gave to the poor and did not steal from them. Maybe we should call him “Robbing the ‘hood” instead.

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In Louisiana, it’s illegal to take pictures of people without their consent and use them for lewd or lascivious purposes. It’s called the video voyeurism law. An example of this is upskirt pictures.

Duane Champagne, 41, a coach at Saints Leo Seton in Lafayette, was detained at Blue Bayou Water Park for taking pictures of girls as young as 10 years of age. If Champagne is convicted, he faces two to 10 years at prison and fines up to $10,000.

After his arrest, police found more than 13,000 pictures of young girls in bikinis on his home computer. The police said he manipulated some of them, and I can only imagine what that means. They also checked his school computer and found nothing inappropriate, however.

Even so, school officials fired Champagne for violating this contract’s morality clause.

The lesson in all this? Parents make sure that no one is taking pictures of your kids at the rec center, neighborhood pool or beach. (Trust your gut - you’ll know if it’s a grandpa taking pictures of his grandkids.) If you have any suspicions, call 911 and get police there immediately.

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Duane Champagne, upskirt, video voyeurism, pictures of young girls