Mother of charged THS student: “My son is not a monster”

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The mother of a Thibodaux High student facing charges in connection with alleged spoken and written threats of violence at school says she is devastated by the anxiety and fear his schoolmates and their parents experienced last week, as authorities and administrators investigated the case.


Keith Usea, 17, left a north shore psychiatric hospital Tuesday, the place he has been since school officials and detectives first interviewed him. He was transported to the Lafourche Parish jail where he was booked on charges of terrorizing and simple assault, his bond set at $1,010,000. 

Terrorizing, contained in La. RS 14 S. 40.1 “is the intentional communication of information that the commission of a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist, with the intent of causing members of the general public to be in sustained fear for their safety;  or causing evacuation of a building, a public structure, or a facility of transportation;  or causing other serious disruption to the general public.”

Terrorizing can draw a fine upon conviction of $15,000 or imprisonment for up to 15 years.


Simple assault “is an attempt to commit a battery, or the intentional placing of another in reasonable apprehension of receiving a battery.” Simple assault is a misdemeanor. 

Another student, Mason Dupre, described by those who know him as being intellectually challenged, was also charged on a warrant after detectives said they were told he had agreed to assist Usea in a plan to take revenge out on students. Dupe’s bond will be set at $1 million.

The case remains under investigation. Both Usea and Dupre have been suspended from school, pending expulsion hearings. Lafourche school officials said under such circumstances according to the rules, a student would not be returning to school if bonded. 


Usea has a history of learning challenges and in particular social adjustment problems, said his mother, Valerie Folse. He was diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum at 11-years-old, she said, along with other issues. His career as a student has been marred by bullying and taunting from other children, she maintains, while also stating that she knows his actions cannot be just brushed aside. Still, she hopes the legal system will be merciful.

“I am heartbroken over the fact that my son’s actions put fear in so many children and parents’ hearts,” said Folse. “No parent should ever have to fear their child is in that kind of danger. I am truly sorry. I have no excuses for his actions and he will face the consequences for this. He was always taught to know right from wrong, and that he is responsible for what he does. In spite of this, Keith is not a monster …  He is a little boy in a 17-year-old’s body.”

Investigation of Usea was commenced less than a week after a former student stormed a Broward County, Fla. high school brandishing a semi-automatic rifle, killing 17 staff members and students. The case has reverberated nationwide, and heightened vigilance among teachers, students and parents. In Terrebonne, Lafourche and Assumption parishes at least 12 youngsters were investigated and charged for verbalizing what were perceived as threats against schools or fellow students. The cases of Usea and Dupre are different in a major way. Because each is 17, each will be prosecuted as an adult, facing adult penalties if convicted. Ironically, if they had been charged in July, because of a change in Louisiana, both would have likely been charged as juveniles and thus subject to the Lafourche juvenile justice system.


Keith Usea was living with his father, Terry Usea, in Chackbay. His mother lives out of state. The parents are divorced. But Folse said she is still a part of her youngest son’s life, despite the distance. Although the split and some issues surrounding custody were jagged and painful, Folse saids, she never spoke ill of Terry Usea to their son. 

Other students described him as a socially awkward teen, whose behavior was unpredictable enough for them to be frightened, especially after learning that last year he had a “hit list” of people at school who had slighted him. 

According to accounts from students, in October Usea pulled one of them aside and shared a note that said “What Is Love” at the top, while they were chatting with a student teacher.


“He wrote a paragraph explaining that he thought love was a made-up concept and he was just going to focus on getting stronger and getting his revenge on people who wronged him,” a student recalled. The student teacher overheard the conversation and notified an Assistant Principal Brandon Trahan, who brought the youth to the main office.

School administration was also told by a student that Usea had a note that amounted to a list, but it was never found and therefore there was no proof of it. A call was made Monday to the school containing information about Usea’s list and police were notified.

Investigators later said that Usea acknowledged that there was a list from last year, but that he no longer had it. They also said that his alleged plan was to take out his revenge using a shotgun.


Usea’s father, relatives said, possesses a shotgun but keeps it locked and secured. 

He had never, according to what he told his mother in a phone conversation Tuesday morning, been called to the office at Thibodaux High. Attempts to reach Terry Usea by The Times have been unsuccessful.

Valerie Folse said she was told by her son that he was taken out of class last Monday and brought to the principal’s office, where he spoke with the administrator and a detective.


He was then brought to a Sheriff’s Office substation, he told his mother, where he was questioned for six hours by detectives before being brought to Ochsner St. Anne Hospital. From there he was taken to the north shore. He also stated that they told him something about a lawyer. He asked a question about that, he told his mother, and alleged that detectives told him that was for later in court.

“The first thing he said to me when he called the first time was that the letter was last year,” she said. “Today (Tuesday) he told me … he knew nothing about October, and he had no intention of going back to that plan.”

Folse acknowledges that her role as mother in a time of crisis is compromised by the distance she lives from Louisiana. But she is determined to see him defended against the charges, she said. 


While she understands the difficulty this case brought to the doorsteps of other parents, she is now very focused on fears for her son, and what will happen next. Although she has seen what she maintains are ugly and misinformed statements on social media — made by frightened parents, she realizes — Folse said she knows her son would never have harmed anyone. And while she realizes he is accountable for his actions, she won’t abandon him while he is in trouble.

“He’s my baby, and I was his biggest cheerleader, he was by my side all the time, neither of us really did anything without the other, and he was the last child to leave the nest. I tried to hang on to him as long as I could, but I never held him back from what he wanted to do, I just usually was still around to be there for him,” she said, noting that her son, given the opportunity to lvie with her in California, chose to live with his dad. The two agreed that Terry Usea would be the custodial parent, she said.

Growing up, she said, he was exceedingly needy — glued to her hip — and something was different. He didn’t like being around anyone else when he was a baby and toddler. His first day of school for his first three grades were “not a good memory” with days in between “filled with tears and panic.”


His personality, Folse said, began to blossom in some ways. But he hated crowds, loud noises and sometimes being around people in general.

“On his good days he was the best child you could ever meet, he loved being helpful to adults and his peers, he usually had a smile on his face when he met new people and the teachers and administrative staff,” Folse said. “He was socially stunted though, he wasn’t and isn’t hip to the way a normal 17 year old acts. He would rather watch cartoons than go hang out, he definitely was a rebel, he did his own thing, and didn’t really mess with anyone.”

He played ball every summer from the age of nine and sometimes drew joy from getting on base. 


“He didn’t have many friends because he didn’t understand other kids usually and he would think they were being mean to him when they weren’t,” Folse explained. “He is always telling me now not to worry about him, that he will be alright. He always dreamed of going to college to be a veterinarian, since he was in elementary school. I am terrified for him, jail is not the place for him. I know what he said was wrong, and I have told him over the years that his actions have consequences, I can only imagine the desperation in the pit of his stomach over the endless barrage of bullying and taunts from these kids for him to say such a thing.”

Prosecutors have not yet reviewed the charges against Usea and Dupre. 

District Attorney Kristine Russell will have the choice of bringing the charges before a grand jury or filing a bill of information herself, without doing so.


Word of the arrests caused a near-panic among some parents at Thibodaux High, who demanded that school officials do a better job of informing them when the potential for a threat exists. 

Speaking to reporters Monday, LPSO Lt. Brennan Matherne said he hopes the Thibodaux High case, and similar arrests from last week at other schools — all non-connected incients — are kept in proper perspective.

“What we had were seven incidents in schools where nine kids were charged,” Matherne said, including the Thibodaux High situation. “Not one weapon was found on a campus. No shots were fired. It was all words and that is what got these kids charged. The fact that we were jumping on this was because of words that people spoke, according to what the law says.”


Keith Usea

Mason Dupre