Attorney says charges against former school leaders accused of failing to report abuse are baseless

追加: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]The attorney for two arrested former elementary school leaders say the charges against them are baseless.

[00:00:06]>> Gabby Hilden reports that police accused the former principal and assistant principal at E.E. Lyons Elementary of failing to report suspected child abuse.

[00:00:15]>> Covington police arrest former Lyons Elementary principal Lauren Faschan and former assistant principal Tonya Barth under Louisiana's mandatory reporting law. Police say the women failed to tell the necessary channels about an incident of child abuse at the school.

[00:00:31]>> This is obviously quite shocking. Um I don't know that I've ever seen a news story like this.

[00:00:37]>> Brent Osborne with the teachers union in St. Tammany Parish says reporting any alleged child abuse is an essential part of the job.

[00:00:45]>> If it's employee related, you have to call law enforcement yourself. We recommend people call law enforcement directly.

[00:00:52]If it's abuse within the home or caregiver, the call is to DCFS. Do want to stress though as a union, we believe everybody deserves their due process rights. Allow the police to do their part. Allow the justice system to handle this.

[00:01:08]>> Faschan and Barth's attorney Roy Burns agrees. He says his clients reported an incident to the school's resource police officer and did not violate any law.

[00:01:17]>> We've been uh dealing with this behind the scenes for about 2 weeks now.

[00:01:22]And uh try try to just get squared away.

[00:01:25]There's a lot of chat going on about it and we don't want that to go unanswered.

[00:01:28]They're not guilty. They did nothing.

[00:01:31]And we going to fight it till the very end.

[00:01:34]>> Both police and St. Tammany Parish public schools say they will not release any details about the incident to protect students privacy. The women no longer work at the school but are still district employees.

[00:01:48]>> And the jail released both women on a $5,000 bond. St. Tammany Superintendent Frank Jappia says he's committed to supporting students, families, and employees during this.