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Lafayette High School alumni bid farewell to beloved campus
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LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) -- Alumni of Lafayette High School walked through the school's hallways for the final time Wednesday evening.
"We are the lions! The mighty, might lions!" a group of LHS cheerleaders from the graduating class of 1964 cheered.
The LHS Alumni Memory Walk was hosted prior to the school being demolished to make way for the new campus scheduled to open next school year.
Thousands of former students, like Helen Turner who graduated in 1960, came back to their alma mater.
"It's good memories," Turner said. "Just to reminisce. To see how many of my classmates would be here and go through all the classrooms."
Former teachers also jumped at the opportunity to get one last look at the school.
"I started in 1955, and I taught until the pandemic started," Emile Concienne, a teacher for more than 60 years, said. "It's like being back home."
Concienne taught medical life science for all those years. On Wednesday, he walked through his classroom he spent so many decades teaching.
Other teachers, like Marcella Baudoin and Larry Aucoin, taught at Lafayette High School for 35 years.
"Marcella and I came here together. Every pep rally, we were dancers together. We dressed up. There's nothing we didnt do for the kids," Aucoin recalled.
"It's heartbreaking because we spent so much of our lives here," Baudoin chimed in.
With sadness, however, also comes happiness. Lafayette High School became the place where she met her future husband, though they didn't reconnect until 2023.
"Our lunch lasted four hours and five minutes. Fast forward, wedding bells are ringing," Baudoin's fiancée said. "It's absolutely full circle."
While the building will soon be demolished, hundreds of people enjoyed one last walk down memory lane.
"It was the best four years of my life," one woman from the 1964 graduating class said. "We've enjoyed being together again and looking forward to seeing the school one last time."