In every Louisiana parish there is an alternative program or “court school” for students who have been expelled or committed some kind of criminal offense, but not all of them get to work with someone like Ed Bourgeois.
Bourgeois, of E.J. Landry Alternative School, is not a alternative teacher like most. He teaches sandwich and salad prep as the supervisor of Café Landry, the school’s culinary training program.
“These are not bad kids,” he said. “These are kids who have made bad choices.”
When their choices are as serious as drug or weapon possession at school, they come to E.J. Landry and to Bourgeois.
“They can get anywhere from nine weeks to two years in court school for a serious offense,” he said. “Or they can land on the ADAPT (Alternative Discipline A Positive Turn around) side of the school for three days for something minor.”Bourgeois, who teaches the students about food preparation, is also training them for a restaurant job.
They’re expected to make the grade in every way.
“Every student I accept must be passing every subject,” he said. “They must also have a clean slate here – no trouble.”Culinary arts is an E.J Landry training program, but not every school in the state does food.
“Some schools in the state do car mechanics,” Bourgeois said. “Others do carpentry or electricity, but all do some sort of vocational training program.”
Bourgeois said he believes some students are not suited for the classroom at the same time in life. They become agitated and bored, and can end up in the kind of trouble that alters their lives. But if they can perform a skill, such as preparing food and selling it, then they can feel good about themselves and have a positive self-image, which he considers vitally important at their young impressionable age.
He knows about these things first hand.
Bourgeois entered the U.S. Marine Corps in the early 70s and pulled two tours of duty in Vietnam. He was wounded twice (shot both times) and after the second battle wound was discharged.
He went to Nicholls State University in Thibodaux and later transferred to Loyola University in New Orleans. But he met a woman, who he wanted to marry while attending Loyola, and had to support a family so he dropped out.
He started a catering business after a failed partnership with a man he worked for on an offshore catering job feeding the oil drillers in the Gulf of Mexico.
“We had a big falling out and he bought me out,” Bourgeois said. “The next day I opened my own place.”
He had friends in Texas he did big banquets for, friends that would eventually rise to high places. “I did catering for George H.W. Bush and for his son, G.W., too,” he said. “They loved my food.”
Unfortunately, company cutbacks hurt him during the late 80s and he went bankrupt. He lost his home, his wife and most of his business contacts.
But he didn’t quit.
Bourgeois stayed working on whatever he could and went back to Nicholls to get a degree in general studies.
In 2004, Dr. Rodney Lafon, then St. Charles Parish superintendent of schools, had an idea about helping some of the troubled students in his system.
Lafon had already been superintendent for nearly 20 years and was inspired by Café Reconcile in New Orleans, a place that tried to help troubled youth by giving them direction and a job.
“Dr. Lafon brought me in because of school board member Steve Crovetto,” Bourgeois said. “I knew this business, and even though we didn’t have a full kitchen, he felt we could start off small.”
The courthouse employees worked right next door. They needed a close by lunch place due to a short break window, and the kids could benefit from the direction, so it seemed like a natural fit, according Bourgeois.
But then came Hurricane Katrina.
“We had to close down almost as soon as we got started,” Bourgeois said.
But the program came back in 2006 and has been going ever since.
Felecia Gomez-Walker, the current superintendent, felt the program was a good one and kept it going, according to Bourgeois.
Verlyn Adams, Landry School administrator and former assistant principle at Hahnville High School and R.J. Vial Elementary School, described the program and its instructor as top notch.
“He’s just fabulous,” Adams said. “He has had such a good impact on these students.”
She said the program, along with the academics, is such a positive thing for the community.
Adams said some people have a negative opinion of the court school, but that’s not accurate.
“Everybody seems to think court school kids are bad kids, and they’re not,” she said. “They are the same kids as the ADAPT kids, just going through their fourth suspension. They think these kids are all criminals and juvenile delinquents, but then they walk through and see these kids and their opinions change.”
Adams said she feels some of these kids look up to people like Bourgeois almost like a father figure.
And he does sincerely care.
“I’ve been doing this work for a long time,” Bourgeois said. “I don’t reach everybody, but I do give everybody the same chance to do well. Some do; some don’t. But mainly, we have a good relationship and I feel I know these kids.”Bourgeois said he is a genuine advocate for vocational education.
“Like I said before, not everybody is ready for school at the same time. I should know,” he said. “But as long as they know there is a place for them, I expect they’ll come out all right.”
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