Step Up Louisiana is a community based organization committed to building power to win education and economic justice for all. We work with multiracial and intergenerational Louisianans to “Step Up” by campaigning, organizing from a racial justice perspective, and holding public officials accountable. We organize with parents, workers, students, and community members to disrupt systemic oppression in our schools and workplaces through voter education, advocacy, and action. We represent over 300 parents in New Orleans.

We need YOUR help to ensure that Audubon Gentilly (Gentilly Terrace) schoolchildren continue to have meaningful access to their field.  

Audubon Gentilly has a majority Black student body, serving children who live in the immediate vicinity, as well as New Orleans East and other neighborhoods. The school has no gymnasium and, other than the field within the school’s fence, no meaningful greenspace on which to play. As the Louisiana Department of Education has recognized, numerous studies show how important access to greenspace is to children’s physical, emotional and social development.  

Now the city plans to develop the school’s field into a public park, increasing the property values of nearby homes at the expense of our children’s health and safety.

The block on which the school sits was granted to the city in 1914. The grant specified that the land could never be used “for any purpose other than that of a school or park,” could never be leased or sold to “negro or negroes,” and must be used “as a school for white persons only.” The school was built the same year and remained an all-white school into the late 1960s. In the 1970s, around the time the school became racially integrated, a fence was put up around the entire block, enclosing the school and the field.  

For approximately 50 years, the schoolchildren have had exclusive access to the field during recess, without fear of incursion by unknown adults or loose dogs. The children routinely play soccer, football and other games, and incorporate the oak trees into their imaginative play. Teachers have noted that having recess in this greenspace is a cherished part of the daily routine for their students, particularly for children with developmental disabilities and those recovering from the trauma and disruption of the pandemic.

The school is not willing to incur the liability of allowing young children to play in an area to which the public has unrestricted access. This means the students will be deprived of access to their greenspace if the city constructs a public park on this land. An expert in school safety has expressed concerns about having a public park abutting a schoolyard, separated only by a chain-link fence. Parents and teachers are also concerned about the disruption to their children’s education from attending school in a construction zone.  

At a public meeting on January 19th, City Councilman Eugene Green told parents they have no say in whether their children’s schoolyard will be turned into a public park. He let it be known that he was already making plans to fund the park’s construction, and that any compromise must meet with his agreement, as he is in charge of submitting such proposals to the City Council. Multiple compromises proposed by the school have been rejected without public engagement or transparency. The only compromise that is currently “on the table” would see the children’s greenspace reduced by 80% and would require the school to pay for a new fence to be built across the property.  

It is unacceptable that one individual with no school-aged children and a financial interest in raising property values should have the power to dictate the future of the greenspace, with no regard for the welfare of the schoolchildren who currently use the space. Our elected officials have shown little interest in addressing the concerns of parents, and families whose children attend Audubon Gentilly School but live outside of Councilman Green’s district are systematically disenfranchised in this process.  

It is time for parents and community members to STEP UP and demand educational justice for our school community. Our children must continue to have safe access to their greenspace! Sign this petition to ask our elected officials to do the right thing – don’t let special interests dictate the future of the Gentilly Terrace schoolyard!