OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY) — Eleven students at Opelousas Catholic High School have been suspended for three days after allegedly failing a breathalyzer test.
The students’ parents say, however, the readings were incorrect and they’re fighting back against the school’s decision.
The incident in question reportedly occurred the night before the students officially became seniors and were all attending a “turning senior” party.
When the students came to school the next morning, on Friday, a coach suspected that one of the students was drunk.
The results of that student’s breathalyzer test caused school administrators to test more students, which led to 11 suspensions.
The parents of those students met with school administrators Monday.
“So now we’re told that our children aren’t even allowed at church. A Catholic school, how do you turn a child away from church? That’s just unthinkable. It’s unheard of,” one parent said.
That parent, who has chosen not to reveal their identity out of fear of retaliation, says in addition to being suspended for three days, the students were banned from attending mass, their senior ring ceremony, and award banquets.
The students were reportedly also taken off of the youth ministry teams and can’t participate in homecoming court as part of the punishment; a punishment many parents say shouldn’t have been given out.
During the meeting with the school administration, parents shared their concerns.
“We presented them with several facts, several flaws in accuracies in testing equipment. We had those students test at certified laboratories within 30 minutes of testing positive at school, and they blew a 0.000 on their breathalyzer at a certified laboratory,” the parent added.
“We also had students who said they observed the coach calibrating the machine and that even when he blew into the machine, he blew positive.”
The parents say school officials chose to uphold their punishment, regardless of the concerns presented about the breathalyzer testing.
“No documentation of alcohol levels, no documentation of students’ behaviors that warranted alcohol testing, no documentation of any logs that maintain proper calibration and make sure the equipment was working properly, so this is bogus. All of this needs to be thrown out, and our students need to be able to attend school as seniors,” the parent added.
News Ten did reach out to Opelousas Catholic but we have not yet heard back.