Local New Orleans Catholic Elementary school the target of an arsonist

Torched Resurrection school had been threatened, Archdiocese of New Orleans says

Published: Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 5:51 PM     Updated: Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 7:26 PM

By Bruce Nolan, The Times-Picayune NOLA.com

Children returning to classes at Resurrection of Our Lord Elementary School last month filed past police and parent volunteers watching over the campus, summoned by Catholic school authorities who had received two unsettling letters voicing a vague threat and the warning: "You will pay." For weeks the extra security remained in place, but decreased over time.

View full sizePhotos by John McCusker, The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans fire investigators suspect arson in a Tuesday morning fire that closed Resurrection of Our Lord Elementary School in eastern New Orleans. A firefighter passes a hose through a window in the school building.

 

 

Then Tuesday morning, someone doused six buildings at the eastern New Orleans school with accelerants and set several fires, causing major damage.
The Fire Department released no new information about the arson investigation Wednesday, and a police spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment about the letters or the Police Department's role at Resurrection afetr the letters arrived.
Absent any official information, school officials remain unsure if the fire is linked to the threats, said archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah McDonald.
But one thing is for sure: The letters made an impact when students returned to school after the Christmas break, according to parents and school officials.
The identical letters had been slipped through the doors of the locked church and the principal's office in mid-December, said Glenn Braud, a longtime parishioner whom the pastor, the Rev. MichaelJoseph Nguyen, consulted early in the episode.
Braud said the anonymous letters contained the same few lines repeated several times. The lines were vulgar and threatening, including the phrase "you will pay," but they did not specify how.

View full sizeJohn McCusker, The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans fire investigators suspect arson in a Tuesday morning fire that forced the closure of Resurrection of Our Lord Elementary School in eastern New Orleans.

 

 

The letters also mentioned the date the school's 450 or so students would return to school. Resurrection, at 4861 Rosalia Drive, serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grades.
"We scratched out heads. We had no idea why we received this letter," Braud said. But, especially because it included the date for students' return to school, "We didn't take it lightly."
Braud said the parish quickly turned the letters over to police. Archdiocesan school authorities were notified.
During the next few weeks, Resurrection's pastor and its principal, Si Nguyen, consulting with the central office, developed a beefed-up security plan to receive children back to school in early January, according to Catholic schools Superintendent Jan Lancaster.
In a letter to parents, Nguyen said the school had "received letters that contained vulgar language and an unspecified threat."

New Orleans firefighters spent much of Tuesday on the school and church campus.

 

 

He also told parents that extra security would be evident when children returned, and that there would be less visible precautions in effect as well.
Braud and several parents said police were evident on campus. At least one police car, sometimes two, were visible outside, they said.
"We called some former NOPD and some of them showed up as well," Braud said. "Plus some NOPD volunteers in plain clothes."
Extra police remained on or conspicuously near campus for the opening week and all the following week, Braud said.
As police dialed back the officers' presence over time, they left an empty, marked van sitting near the school.
Recently it was withdrawn as well.
"It was there through last week," Braud said.
Lancaster said police patrols continued to pass occasionally until the time of the fire.
Archdiocesan school officials did not have an appraisal of the damage caused by the fire, but said it was extensive.
The school's administrative area and a connecting classroom building for second through eighth grades were the worst hit, Lancaster said. The library was less badly damaged, and a preschool building was largely untouched, she said.
Meanwhile, archdiocesan officials and Resurrection's staff raced to reopen nearby St. Paul the Apostle School as a temporary day-care center for displaced pupils Thursday and Friday.
They also looked for solutions to get students back on Resurrection's campus after Mardi Gras.
Lancaster said the goal is for students to return on Feb. 27.