The Meridian Public School District is no longer under federal supervision because it has taken sufficient steps to limit the effects of segregation, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate found as he granted the district unitary status during a Sept. 12 hearing in Jackson, Miss.
The ruling means the U.S. Justice Department will no longer monitor whether the school system is making equitable decisions regarding student, faculty and staff assignments, school realignments, transportation or facilities.
“For us, it’s a victory,” MPSD Superintendent Amy Carter told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept 15. “It is a celebration of the dedication of our educators, our students, our leaders, our community. It is saying that we’ve worked hard and now the nation can see us and know us for who we truly are—a school district that goes above and beyond to help children find their potential and to help them achieve greatness. Now I think the narrative and the story can truly be told so that people know who we are and not who they thought we were.”
Meridian Public Schools and the U.S. Justice Department reached a consent decree in March 2013 to end harsh disciplinary practices that disproportionately affected Black students. A federal investigation found that Black students were five times more likely than white students to be suspended from classes and often received longer suspensions. The U.S. Justice Department said that the harsher sentences were given for “comparable misbehavior, even where the students were at the same school, were of similar ages, and had similar disciplinary histories.”
From left: Meridian Public Schools District Attorney John Compton; MPSD Superintendent Dr. Amy Carter; LaVonda Germany, MPSD Director of PBIS & Student Supports; Jaime Dole of Adams and Reese LLP Paralegal; and John Hooks, MPSD attorney with Adams and Reese LLP, were present for Judge Wingate’s ruling in favor of the Meridian Public School District on Sept. 12, 2023. Photo courtesy Meridian Public School District
The agreement required the district to comply with several measures such as limiting the use of discipline that removed students from classrooms, developing guidelines on law enforcement intervention and
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