Changes

===Assistant state superintendent===

===Assistant state superintendent===

Thompson's state title was "deputy assistant superintendent for special education." His immediate supervisor was Henry Leroy Smith, Jr., a North Carolina native, who from 1976 to 1982 was the assistant superintendent over special education. In 1981, a federal grand jury indicted Thompson and Smith on tent counts in an alleged kickback scheme. One count was merged with another, and the men faced nine counts. They were charged with having sought to extort assets from the [[Missouri]]-based International Management System. They were found to have placed a portion of a contract price from the State of Louisiana into a "kitty" in which the money was divided among themselves and a third person, Edward George Ackal, a [[Lafayette]] [[business]]man whose Educational Products Corporation sold goods and services to the state. The grand jury alleged that Thompson, Smith, and Ackal collectively split $360,000 of an $889,000 contract to International Management System, which financed the testing of thirty thousand pre-school pupils to determine how many qualified for expanded special education under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. The law required school districts to provide an educational experience comparable to what a non-disabled child would receive. The act also requires school districts to provide one free meal per day for children with physical or mental disabilities.<ref name=Hathorn, "Education in Tensas Parish", pp. 50-51.</ref>

Thompson's state title was "deputy assistant superintendent for special education." His immediate supervisor was Henry Leroy Smith, Jr., a North Carolina native, who from 1976 to 1982 was the assistant superintendent over special education. In 1981, a federal grand jury indicted Thompson and Smith on tent counts in an alleged kickback scheme. One count was merged with another, and the men faced nine counts. They were charged with having sought to extort assets from the [[Missouri]]-based International Management System. They were found to have placed a portion of a contract price from the State of Louisiana into a "kitty" in which the money was divided among themselves and a third person, Edward George Ackal, a [[Lafayette]] [[business]]man whose Educational Products Corporation sold goods and services to the state. The grand jury alleged that Thompson, Smith, and Ackal collectively split $360,000 of an $889,000 contract to International Management System, which financed the testing of thirty thousand pre-school pupils to determine how many qualified for expanded special education under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. The law required school districts to provide an educational experience comparable to what a non-disabled child would receive. The act also requires school districts to provide one free meal per day for children with physical or mental disabilities.<ref>Hathorn, "Education in Tensas Parish", pp. 50-51.</ref>

Thompson, Smith, and Ackal were found guilty in federal district court in Baton Rouge for having defrauded taxpayers. All three lost their appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in [[New Orleans]] and were imprisoned. Information is sketchy on Thompson's activities for the seven years from his release from prison until his death in Baton Rouge in the fall of 1993 at the age of sixty-one. Two funeral services were held for the veteran educator: at St. John's [[United Methodist]] Church in Baton Rouge and then the Newellton Union Church, a amalgam of Methodists, [[Presbyterian]]s, and [[Episcopalian]]s. He is interred alongside his wife and other family members at Legion Memorial Cemetery in Newellton. The Thompsons had three sons.  Charles Anthony "Tony" Thompson and Bruce Alan Thompson, Sr., are twins born in 1956 and practicing physicians, who reside, respectively, in Nacogdoches, Texas, and Searcy, [[Arkansas]]. The younger son, Michael David "Mike" Thompson, is a bank officer at Cross Keys Bank in St. Joseph.<ref>Hathorn, "Education in Tensas Parish" pp. 51-52.</ref>

Thompson, Smith, and Ackal were found guilty in federal district court in Baton Rouge for having defrauded taxpayers. All three lost their appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in [[New Orleans]] and were imprisoned. Information is sketchy on Thompson's activities for the seven years from his release from prison until his death in Baton Rouge in the fall of 1993 at the age of sixty-one. Two funeral services were held for the veteran educator: at St. John's [[United Methodist]] Church in Baton Rouge and then the Newellton Union Church, a amalgam of Methodists, [[Presbyterian]]s, and [[Episcopalian]]s. He is interred alongside his wife and other family members at Legion Memorial Cemetery in Newellton. The Thompsons had three sons.  Charles Anthony "Tony" Thompson and Bruce Alan Thompson, Sr., are twins born in 1956 and practicing physicians, who reside, respectively, in Nacogdoches, Texas, and Searcy, [[Arkansas]]. The younger son, Michael David "Mike" Thompson, is a bank officer at Cross Keys Bank in St. Joseph.<ref>Hathorn, "Education in Tensas Parish" pp. 51-52.</ref>