On September 13th, two thousand seniors in Louisiana signed up for what they thought was a field trip to a college fair, but that was not the case. Students of the Easton Baton Rouge Parish school system held a field trip that said it was a college fair on the permission slips. Students were shuttled to what was assumed a college fair, but then realized they had arrived at a church. The church that held the event was Living Faith Christian Center. They promised to educate the children about college and career opportunities, but students recall the opposite. Although there were a couple of college booths, it was clear to the students that the church had a different agenda in mind.

“Students were separated by gender,” Said Brittney Bryant. Bryant is a biology teacher and mother that chaperoned on the field trip.”Boys were instructed to go outside while girls were left in the church for ‘girl talk’.My Transgender child was discriminated against for walking out. Boys were encouraged to perform macho acts while girls were advised to forgive men who rape and assault them”, says a GoFundMe for this litigation effort, which had raised $75 as of Saturday.  Speakers told long, graphic tales and reenactments of suicide, which left some students with past loss due to suicide disturbed and upset with no emotional support to help them. “Students were found in the bathroom weeping,” Bryant added. After the ‘girl talk’ was over, the boys were escorted into the church to participate in ‘real talk’, which turned out to be having no conversation during the seminar, but only a push-ups competition for money. “Other students poured water on top of transgender students’ heads without any repercussions by any of the adults that were at the event”. 

A student named Alexis Budyach told her side of the story on Facebook. “I attended this college fair as someone who has plans on applying to colleges soon, so I was disappointed when I saw what the event actually was”. Buydach identifies themself as a genderfluid person and assumed they would face discrimination if they decided to go with the boys. Buydach kept their mouth shut and stayed inside to hear the panelists talk. “At the end of everything, the host made the audience make a choice. He said, ‘If you want to eat, pizza is right outside those doors for you. If you choose to change, if you want to get better, come towards the stage towards me.’ At this point we had not eaten and frankly, I was done being traumatized, so I left the building.” Bryant recalls seeing a man bribe a girl one hundred dollars to get her off stage to talk about male control and domestic violence. One parent wrote on Facebook, “ I signed a permission slip for a college and career day. What I got were indoctrination and trauma. 

In defense of the school district, a statement was made later in the week. They said, “The event was structured to assist with exploring what options were available after high school, along with allowing students to participate in breakout sessions and student-initiated activities and projects”. “It kinda felt more like a spiritual event than a college fair”, added Trey Holiday, a student who attended the event. Parents of the children reached out on Facebook to keep the school district accountable. A parent who only wanted to be identified as Jae said “The level of dishonesty is a complete problem for me and bringing this religious factor into it. That’s not a problem if it’s in certain spaces and it’s given permission and I know I’m sending my child for that but we didn’t sign up for this.” The Eastern Baton Rouge Parish School Board Vice President Dawn collins believes what the school district allowed to happen is not good and stated “There is a separation of church and state, and it seems like those lines may have been crossed.”