Louisiana Made School Threats a Felony With Hard Time, and Put Parents on the Hook

What should it cost to call in a threat against a school?

Most parents know the text message: the school is on lockdown, stay by your phone. Louisiana decided that the person who puts a school through that hour should face serious consequences, and in some cases so should that person's parents.

Terrorizing a school property, a school-sponsored function, or a firearm-free zone now carries a fine up to $15,000, or 5 to 15 years at hard labor without parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, or both. Menacing the same places carries a fine up to $1,000, or 2 to 5 years with or without hard labor, or both.

In the first five days of each school year, every public school principal must give students in grades six and up information about the crime and its consequences. Parents receive the same information on a form they sign and return to the school.

After a child 14 or older is adjudicated for a felony-grade school threat or false bomb threat, the court must order any or all of three things: a mental examination, up to 12 months of probation or up to six months in juvenile detention, and the Back on Track Youth Pilot Program. After a second adjudication, the limits rise to 18 months of probation or nine months of detention. HB137 also lowers the program's minimum age from 16 to 14.

This is where the law reaches furthest. It adds four new ways a parent commits the crime of improper supervision of a minor, including knowingly, willfully, or through criminal negligence permitting a child to terrorize or menace a school. That crime requires fault on the parent's part.

The civil fine is written differently. After a child's felony-grade adjudication for a school threat or false bomb threat, the parent, custodian, or guardian "shall be subject to a civil fine" of up to $5,000, and $5,000 to $10,000 after a second or later adjudication. That provision contains no requirement that the parent knew, was negligent, or did anything wrong.

The court must also hold a hearing on whether the parent can reimburse the police, sheriff, or other agency for the cost of the response and prosecution. Reimbursement is ordered unless it would cause substantial financial hardship. That hardship protection governs the reimbursement order. The fine provision has no hardship language of its own.

Picture two families. In one, a father ignores his son's threats and leaves a loaded gun on the dresser. In the other, a mother does everything right, and her daughter sends a threat anyway, in secret. Under the civil fine provision as written, both parents are exposed to the same fine.

IPS supports HB137. Threats against schools terrorize children and shut down campuses, and the penalties match the harm. The parental civil fine should be amended to require parental fault, the same standard the Legislature already wrote into the criminal offense.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R) sponsored HB137, titled the School Threat Accountability and Safety Act, with Rep. Josh Carlson (R). It passed the House 71-26 and the Senate 29-6, and the House agreed to the Senate amendments 72-21. Governor Jeff Landry signed it June 2, 2026, as Act 619. It took effect August 1, 2026.

Parental responsibility should mean a parent did something wrong. The criminal offense says so. The civil fine should say so too.

This is our read of the law. We encourage you to read it yourself and reach your own conclusions.