This week on Behind the Lens, in two weeks young students in New Orleans public schools will be back in classrooms. Most local colleges and universities are open now, and some are already seeing rising COVID numbers, but last week, public data on all school outbreaks was removed from the Louisiana Department of Health website. We will examine why.

The New Orleans jail saw its third death in recent months. To some advocates, those incidents are continuing to raise questions about the conditions at the jail.

Also on the criminal justice front, the city just completed renovations on a facility meant to temporarily house detainees with acute mental illness currently being held in a state prison, but it’s unclear when they will be transferred back to New Orleans — nor what a permanent housing solution might look like. 

And the NOLA Public Schools district is asking its schools to take attendance of  virtual learning students so the district can establish a baseline rate, and determine whether it needs to intervene to ensure more students are actually participating.

Behind The Lens is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and Stitcher. And we broadcast the show on community radio stations 102.3 FM WHIV LP in Mid-City and 90.3 FM WAMF-LP in the Marigny.

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Carolyne Heldman has been in media for 35 years, most recently as Executive Director at an NPR member station in Colorado where she was responsible for new multi-platform content initiatives, strategic...