GOING UP

Kurt LeBlanc was determined to stay enrolled at South Terrebonne High, where his friends and siblings were receiving their education, so he enlisted the help of his mom and other friends to help him scale the staircase, often multiple times each day.

At 15 years old, LeBlanc suffered a stroke in his brain stem, which launched the tri-sport athlete into a seizure on a Monday morning as he was preparing for a sophomore-year day of school. Ultimately, the stroke’s effects eradicated his balance while leaving the thought elements of his brain untouched. LeBlanc nearly lost his life, and the stroke’s effects kept him out of school for two years. He still uses a wheelchair to move around.

All of the classrooms at South Terrebonne High are on the second floor, and before this year, were only reachable by a staircase. The parish’s school district encouraged LeBlanc and other wheelchair-using students in the Bourg secondary school’s range to instead attend east Houma’s Ellender Memorial High.

The LeBlancs opted to remain at South Terrebonne.

“We were able to work it out, but that is unusual,” LeBlanc’s mom Lisa said. “Not everybody who is in a wheelchair has the ability to do that. We were just lucky that they allowed us to do it. … This was his school, and this needed to be his school.”

While her son remained at South Terrebonne, Lisa began championing the need for an elevator and researching means to make it a reality. She credited last month by local officials for initiating the now-complete $235,000 elevator, permitting all students to access the second floor’s classrooms, library and science and computer labs. 

Three current students at the school exclusively use the elevator to get to the second floor, principal Dane Voisin said.

“South Terrebonne High School has been without an elevator for over 50 years,” Voisin said. “Now that we have an elevator, students in wheelchairs and those who have difficulty using the stairs will not be forced to attend a high school which is out of their attendance zone.”

State Sen. Norby Chabert, R-Houma, requested money from Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration in 2009 and received a federal Community Development Block Grant appropriation funneled through the state for the school district. Micro spending by the state Legislature on public schools is rare, Chabert said.

“With the ever-encroaching coast, we’re being used more and more and we will be used more and more in the future as a shelter (for emergencies),” said Chabert, a South Terrebonne alum who was approached with the issue by parents of wheelchair-using students. “What happens, God forbid, if the water comes to a point where we have to get people upstairs? What are we going to do with our citizens who are in wheelchairs, who are incapable of climbing?”

Superintendent Philip Martin bemoaned the former reality that diverted school-age residents from their hometown school – often the same place where their siblings, parents and grandparents were educated – due to a physical limitation.

“Fortunately, from this day forward, every part of our community that attends South Terrebonne will have equal access and will be just like everybody else that’s part of the Gator Nation,” Martin said.

The LeBlancs began advocating for an elevator more than three years ago. Depending on how that timeframe is viewed – the idea of practicality or the understanding of bureaucracy – the project either materialized quickly or slowly.

“It’s a long, long, overdue project,” said Terrebonne Parish School Board President Roger “Dale” DeHart, who noted that it was plagued by delays.

Cheramie + Bruce Architects, based in Houma, designed the elevator. DeHart complimented the firm for designing the elevator’s exterior structure to blend with the aged look of South Terrebonne. “Everything looks like it was there forever. It doesn’t look like a new addition to this school,” he said.

Kurt LeBlanc, who graduated two classes ago, rode the lift after the ribbon was cut last month. He wasn’t able to use the elevator as a student, but his struggle ignited a solution that will benefit future generations of south Terrebonne families, said school board member Hayes Badeaux, who represents Bourg.

“Mrs. LeBlanc, I’m sorry that Kurt couldn’t get to use it, but these young men that are using it, certainly you are the one that’s responsible for starting it, the spark to get it going,” Badeaux said. “Y’all can really thank her for starting it and Senator Chabert for pushing it through.”

Lisa LeBlanc stressed that the elevator represents more than just a mode of transportation.

“It’s just the idea: You can’t tell somebody you can’t go to school because we can’t get you upstairs,” she said.

Kurt LeBlanc and his mom Lisa prepare to ride the newly installed elevator at South Terrebonne High School, the first elevator at the school in 50 years. Kurt, who suffered a brain-stem stroke as a South Terrebonne student, had to be helped up the stairs upon his return to school, where all classrooms are on the second floor, and many other wheelchair-using students were asked to enroll at other area high schools.

ERIC BESSON