Most every student or former student can look back and remember fondly their time in the lunch room, where (usually – silent lunch periods do exist, after all) they can talk with friends, eat borderline-inedible reheated food on styrofoam trays, and con the sweet lunch lady for an extra cookie or chocolate milk carton. “We love our lunch ladies!” school PTA organizations often gush. Well, this lunch lady loved her students, too – a little too much, in fact.
Dawn Marie Baye, 38, a cafeteria worker at Lacache Middle School in Chauvin, LA, is accused of grooming and “behaving inappropriately” around a group of boys ages 13 to 16. Ms. Baye plied the boys with alcohol and pornography at her home before engaging in some sort of sexual encounter with at least one of them. She is charged with eight counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and 10 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, stemming from an April 21 complaint first filed by a parent of one of the boys. Information found on social media (because, gosh darn it, boys love to brag, don’t they?) corroborated the story and led police to take Baye into custody on April 30, and for her to lose her job (because unlike teachers, lunch ladies don’t have tenure).
Prior to her arrest it is alleged that Baye also worked at other schools in the area, possibly having contact with children as young as 8 years old.
Lacache Middle School in Chauvin, Louisiana serves approximately 365 students in grades 5 through 8 and boasts decent tests scores. Whites make up about 75% of the student body, and 40% of the students qualify as low income. Students and parents don’t have much to report as far as positive comments, instead insisting that the school cares more about test scores than anything else, and also citing poor communication on the part of school officials.
The school has been suspiciously quiet about the whole incident, preferring that parents and students learn about it through news outlets rather than their school webpages. Their Facebook page describes itself as “a family-oriented school with a staff who loves to work with, learn with, and teach children.” There are certainly a few boys at the school who received an education they’re likely to never forget.
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