Every school day, four days a week, a handful of men in their late sixties and seventies walk into Glen Oaks High School in Baton Rouge and head to the lunchroom. They’re called the Security Dads, and they’ve been doing this since 1993, when a student named Marlon Wells was shot and killed on campus. The group formed in the aftermath as a simple answer to a hard question: what would it take to make sure kids felt safe and seen? The answer, it turned out, was a friendly face and a hug.
Current principal Eric Randall knows the story better than anyone. He was Marlon Wells’ best friend. He was a teenager when he lost him, and now he runs the school where those same men still show up every day for his students. Member Granville Townsel says many of the kids don’t have dads at home, so the men have shifted into granddad mode, stationed at lunch tables and hallways, ready to listen or just say hello.
The question now is what happens next. Group leader Tommie Stout, 73, believes the Security Dads have about five more years unless two or three younger men join each year to carry the mission. It’s a reminder that mentorship programs everywhere, including here on the Suncoast, survive on one thing: people willing to show up. So we want to hear from you. Who was the mentor who showed up for you when you were young?
