Hillar C. Moore III

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Born one of seven children in 1954 Hillar C. Moore III grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. He then moved to Baton Rouge after his high school graduation from Brother Martin in New Orleans. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in criminal justice but it wasn't that simple. Hillar only went to LSu for a semester before dropping out with a 0.7 GPA. He then decided to go back to school. He majored in forestry before switching his major to criminal justice. He was not able to receive a master's degree in criminal justice because he decided to go to law school.

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The FBI trained Moore to be a crime scene investigator. He then became the youngest District Attorney investigator in the country, at only 20 years old. While working at the District

Attorney's office Moore attended and graduated Magna Cum Laude of his class from Southern University Law School.

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Moore is in his second term of being District Attorney. District Attorney is is the second most powerful person in the state of Louisiana after the Governor.

 

East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar C. Moore III spoke to Louisiana Scholastic Press Association campers in the Journalism Building at Louisiana State University about The Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination (BRAVE) program. The program aims to prevent and eliminate violence in and around Baton Rouge.

 

Moore, along with Dr. David Kennedy, LSU, and the Baton Rouge police force, implemented the grant-funded program in the area. Dr. Kennedy’s novel Don’t Shoot: One Man, a street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America inspired the idea for BRAVE.

 

This program focuses on juveniles anywhere from 13 to 21 years old.  Moore said, “summertime is killing season” due to a large part of this age group being out of school for the summer.

 

Of the 286 murders, more than 50 percent were group member involved (GMI), meaning members of different groups were involved. The gangs in  are called groups due to their small size. Groups lack the upper leadership structure that gangs have. Groups were then classified violent or nonviolent.

 

The programs biggest reason for success has been call-ins. A call-in is a meeting where all those suspected of criminal group activity are called to listen. The call-in featured speeches from influential people and photos of crime scenes as well as mug shots of the imprisoned group members. The fact that these suspected criminals were allowed to come together along with police, and not arrested Moore said, “I was seen as hug a thug.”

 

When Moore took office the average number of homicides every year was about 85. That number has dropped by 25 percent annually since the BRAVE program was implemented in 2012.

 

In 2016, Jim Fealy advised Moore to conduct a study of the police department, the community, and the criminal activity. This study discovered how the murders were group related.

 

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Debra Coltharp

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The decline of the bee population has a frightening environmental impact.

 

Louisiana State University (LSU) Horticulturist, Debra Coltharpe, spoke to the campers of Louisiana Scholastic Press Association Summer Institute (LSPA) in the Journalism building. Coltharpe explained that do to a certain insecticide, used to enhance budding, the bee population is in quick decline. Pesticides along with human negligence have led to that decline. LSU has recently stopped the use of this insecticide.

In a statement from Coltharpe, “You can't do this job without chemicals,” she explains how important chemicals are to the gardening trade.

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Kenenth O. Miles

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Graduation rates at Louisiana State University have risen from 69 percent to 84 percent since 2012.

 

Assistant Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and Executive Director of the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes, Kenneth O. Miles, spoke to Louisiana Scholastic Press Association(LSPA) Summer Institute campers recently about his successes.

 

Miles pushes athletes to their limits and encourages them to strive. He explains that “our approach at looking at education has to change.”

 

“Be a man for others,” says Miles and that's exactly the motto he lives by.

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Jason Martin

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Jason Martin, a future junior at Catholic High Baton Rouge, recently attended the Louisiana Scholastic Press Association (LSPA) Summer Institute.

 

Martin is 16 years old and is the oldest child of his family. He has written for his school newspaper for one year. Martin believes that this camp will look good on his future applications. He plans to go to college at Louisiana State University after he graduates from high school.  He hopes to become a mechanical engineer. Martin said that “I find mechanical engineering interesting and it's challenging.”

When asked what his favorite thing to do was he replied, “Who doesn't like to sleep?”

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