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LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – A Louisiana lawmaker is calling on parents and religious leaders to start having conversations with students about threats at schools.

Following a week of school lockdowns in Acadiana, State Senator Gerald Boudreaux (D-Lafayette) says it’s time for everyone to step up.

“We’re in a bad spot, we’re really in a bad spot. These things are not supposed to happen on an everyday occasion, and we see it happening multiple times on multiple days. And this is serious, this is terrorism, it shuts down public safety and law enforcement, it depletes resources needed in other areas,” Boudreaux said.

Boudreaux says community involvement is the first step in making a change.

“First of all I ask our parents, let’s have a conversation with our young people, and let’s start this weekend. This is not something that can go away until they are arrested. Let’s take a little time and ask our religious leaders to step out on faith and talk about school violence. And thirdly we ask students, if you see something or hear something or know something send in information.”

Boudreaux also said that money has been pledged to hire more school counselors and upgrade campus facilities.

“There’s a pledge of $60M over the next three years to hire more counselors and social workers to identify some of these problems before they rise to this occasion. And there’s over $20M that has been pledged to upgrade campus facilities to reduce the number of people that can come on campus and to protect our teachers, administrators and our students that are already on campus.”

With many of these school threats coming from minors, Boudreaux told News 10 that new rules and laws may have to be put in place.

“Students are wise, and it’s difficult under a terrorism charge because they’re minors. There cannot be any gray area when we deal with school violence and school safety. I think it has to be a carve out to deal specifically with school violence and juveniles and minors. This is just not something that anyone predicted so the laws of the past were not specific enough to deal with everything we deal with today.”