Glen Oaks Security Dads seek to be father figures in community; need help patrolling school

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - For 28 years the Glen Oaks Security Dad’s have patrolled the halls of Glen Oaks Magnet.

For 28 years, Tommie Stout, Thomas “Sarge” Jordan, Elmore Lewis, Lloyd Warren, and the dads that make up the group have spent nearly every school day checking in on the kids at Glen Oaks, making sure they have everything that is needed to succeed.

“It was more or less about being there for the kids,” Warren said.

The Security Dads started in the 90s after a group of concerned fathers saw there was a need for a strong “dad” influence in the community.

“We were having a lot of the same issues that the school is having now. We were having discipline problems, fights, and things like that,” Stout said. “We had a shooting in the area a year before so we thought it would be a good program to start here in the community and bring the dads in.”

Principal Robert Signater said he has noticed a change in the students when the dads are around. Basically, whatever the students need, the dads provide.

“It’s a security blanket, you know. they’re a little seasoned now so they’re a little wiser, they give you life lessons and talk to the kids,” Signater said.

There is a growing problem with the group though, all the “dads” are now granddads. Not a single member of the “dads” has a kid that is still in the school. Stout said new fathers are not stepping up.

“I can’t say they’re just not dedicated enough to come back,” he said. “I wish something like this, a message like this would encourage dads to come back.”

The worry, if younger parents do not get involved, the next generation of Glen Oaks students will not have the Security Dads around.

“We don’t want it to die down,” Stout said. “We don’t want to go to pasture.”

Stout said any dads with students at Glen Oaks or that had children at Glen Oaks and would like to join the Security Dads, contact the school for more information.

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