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The Mississippi Legislature reconvened in Jackson on Wednesday for a special session called by Gov. Tate Reeves to consider an overhaul of the state’s youth court system, which fizzled at the end of the regular session this year and caused some of the laws and funding for youth court to sunset.

But lawmakers faced a major problem: The House chamber in the Capitol is undergoing major renovation and is currently unusable. So, the House is meeting blocks away in the Old Capitol, which is now mostly a museum, while the Senate is meeting in its regular chamber at the Capitol on High Street. The logistics, plus the session being announced by the governor somewhat impromptu on Tuesday afternoon, caused for some scrambling by staff, and grumbling by lawmakers.

READ MORE: Reeves: Special session will overhaul Mississippi’s ‘fragmented’ youth court system. Here’s how

Some lawmakers were at the Southern Legislative Conference in Kentucky when they caught wind Tuesday that they needed to be in Jackson 24 hours later. As lawmakers scrambled to get to Jackson from that conference and from every corner of the state, they received instructions from House staff on how logistics would work at the Old Capitol.

In a text message to lawmakers obtained by Mississippi Today, House members were instructed by Speaker Jason White’s staff to park at the nearby Two Mississippi Museums, where they would then be transported to the Old Capitol on covered golf carts.

Lawmakers are considering reforms to the state’s youth court system that would lead to more full-time judges presiding over cases, the creation of two new state-run juvenile jails and the fixing of expired statutes that have led to several lawsuits.

In total, the proposals call for $29.5 million in new spending on the youth court system. 

Democratic leaders in both chambers said their caucus had “neither seen nor been meaningfully engaged in negotiating,” and some rank-and-file Republican lawmakers said they knew little about the agreement before their return to Jackson.

After gaveling in for a few minutes and honoring two former House members who died last month, Republican Rep. Price Wallace and Democratic Rep. Bo Brown, Speaker Jason White said the House would adjourn until the Senate advanced the youth court legislation.

The Senate Judiciary A Committee began debating the reform measure on Wednesday evening, where Sen. Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula who leads the committee, said Mississippi’s current youth court system of part-time referees in rural areas handling youth court cases is failing children.

“The system of referees and the hodgepodge system were not working,” Wiggins said. “It’s certainly not returning outcomes we want and need.”

Before the committee meeting, Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, attempted but failed through a parliamentary move on Wednesday to simply have lawmakers do away with the sunsets on current laws and funding, and give lawmakers more time to work out an overhaul later.

Bryan said the issue is too important to deal with in a hastily called special session, and that some input from “the 3 million people in this state who might also have some ideas about this matter” should be considered. But Reeves and other proponents of the special session proposal said much work, over a long time, has gone into the bills being presented this week.

Lawmakers worked into Wednesday night, expecting to return Thursday, with continuing into Friday or beyond a possibility.

Lawmakers had been set to reconvene at the Old Capitol building in May to redraw state Supreme Court districts, but Reeves ultimately called that special session off.

The Old Capitol is the site where Mississippi lawmakers once implemented Jim Crow and voted to secede from the Union over slavery. The plan to host a special session there on redistricting drew fierce criticism from Democratic lawmakers, most of whom are Black.

As of now, Reeves has not called a special session on redistricting.

Weeks before the first day of school, teachers across Mississippi say state leaders have made it more difficult for them to access money for classroom supplies. 

Educators have to complete training before they’re able to spend the money the state gives them for classroom supplies, but teachers say the live training has been hard to access — the online meetings have been filled to capacity. Teachers also say that to buy from local vendors, they now have to go through an arduous reimbursement process. 

The money for teachers’ classroom supplies comes from the Education Enhancement Fund, or procurement card program. EEF, established in 2012, gives every K-12 public school teacher $748 — around $25 million in total — to buy supplies for their classrooms. But educators have long said they get the money too late for it to be useful. A report released last year by State Auditor Shad White’s office found that a bulk of the money is locked for teachers as they prepare their classrooms because of the state-mandated Aug. 1 deadline to activate the cards.

This year, Mississippi Department of Education leaders said they wanted to make the process easier for teachers by giving districts access to the money on July 15 and switching from physical cards to a digital wallet platform.

The agency has a one-year $573,000 contract with the platform ClassWallet, according to Shanderia Minor, a spokesperson for the state Education Department. 

The new platform is used in several states and allows teachers to purchase supplies directly from online, pre-approved vendors. State Superintendent Lance Evans said ClassWallet streamlines the process of buying classroom supplies, and the change reflects input from school district leaders across Mississippi. 

One frustration for teachers is that many of the vendors they buy supplies from are not included in the list of more than 160 vendors on ClassWallet’s marketplace, where teachers can spend their EEF money.

According to the state Education Department’s website, five Mississippi-based vendors are approved for teacher reimbursements, as are Walmart and TeachersPayTeachers, an online marketplace for classroom supplies. 

But teachers then have to spend their own money upfront. Additionally, their purchase must be approved before they can be reimbursed. 

If teachers want to buy from local vendors not included on that list, the state Department of Education must first contact that vendor to ensure they’ll give teachers itemized receipts and that the items will be tax exempt. Then the vendor will be added to the list, and teachers can submit reimbursement requests through ClassWallet.

Because of the administrative burden, educators are concerned they’ll have to wait weeks to get their money back.

“The words I’ve heard are ‘insane,’ ‘cumbersome,’ and ‘frustrating,’” said Kelly Riley, executive director of Mississippi Professional Educators. Riley said she’s received numerous emails from educators across the state who are confused by the new process and annoyed by the extra layers of bureaucracy. “There’s just a lot of unknowns at this point.”

White’s office released a statement on social media Tuesday that the education agency has “misinformed the public” about the program and called on the state Education Department to rectify issues with the new process. 

“Teachers will again, through no fault of their own, have to spend their own funds to get classroom supplies while they’re forced to navigate through bureaucratic hoops to get the money promised to them,” the statement reads. “This should not be complicated.”

State Education Department officials say they’ve been communicating with districts for months, but some teachers say the change has caught them by surprise. Additionally, educators must first attend or watch one of five virtual training sessions scheduled this month before their district can activate their accounts. 

Many teachers say they were unable to access the first training on July 13. 

Marie Lane, a longtime special education teacher in north Mississippi, was one of those teachers waiting for the Zoom meeting to start on Monday. 

“At 8:40 a.m., I had my notebook out, my laptop plugging in, all excited,” she said. But as the 9 a.m. meeting started, Lane was still waiting to get in. She got a message a few minutes later that the webinar had reached capacity. 

Lane hopes she can get into one of the other meetings. She’s been gleaning what she can from other educators on social media. That’s how Lane realized how much the state was paying ClassWallet to administer the EEF program. 

“That really grates on my last nerve,” she said. “That’s money that could be spent in the classrooms for these kids.”

She’s doubtful she’ll get what she needs for her class — such as cups for paint to make learning more accessible for her students, a walkie-talkie to communicate with her assistant teacher, dim lamps for her students with sensory needs — before the first day of school on Aug. 3.

“There’s no way at this point I’ll be able to submit a list and get it by the time students are back,” she said. “Lots of times when you’re teaching and someone isn’t getting what we’re doing, you think, ‘If I could run to Walmart real quick for Play-Doh or beads, I could help them.’ But now, if we don’t want to spend our own money, we’re going to have to place an order, wait for it to be accepted and delivered.”

Lane plans to use the money she’s gotten from a recent yard sale and selling items on Facebook to buy the supplies she needs. 

“We as teachers have enough on our plate,” she said. “For special education teachers like me, it’s still required that our students meet certain standards. Meeting those without the supplies we need is going to be really tough.”

Riley said that’s a frustration being voiced by educators across the state. They’re also concerned about the platform’s vendor list, she said, which includes about 50 homeschool-centric vendors.

ClassWallet’s website promotes the new federal tax scholarship program and includes testimonials from homeschoolers and education savings account recipients across the country. 

Jean Cook, a spokesperson for the state education agency, said the homeschool vendors are included on ClassWallet’s list because the platform operates across the country. The Mississippi-specific vendor list will be updated weekly, according to the agency’s website. 

A statement released by the education agency on Monday notes, “Many other states do not have programs like Mississippi’s that give teachers money to buy supplemental instructional materials for their individual classrooms.”

David Bates, a former teacher, is the owner of one of the Mississippi-approved vendors — Old School Learning Depot in Pascagoula. His business provides tutoring services for students after school and sells classroom supplies for teachers. In past years, Bates drove a bus packed with supplies to local schools, allowing teachers to buy in-person with their EEF cards without leaving school property. 

But now, he estimates that the new process will result in a $60,000 loss in revenue for his business because teachers will want to avoid spending their own money.

“For a mom-and-pop shop, that is a pretty big chunk of money,” he said. 

“I’m not combating change,” Bates said. “I just want the opportunity to be part of the change. I’m frustrated about last-minute rollout and last-minute communication about how to make this work for everyone.”

Keyana Hawthorne, an English teacher at Murrah High School in Jackson, was initially skeptical about the agency switching to ClassWallet. Now, she said she hates that she was right. 

Hawthorne plans to attend a training on July 28, which she said conflicts with the professional development she receives in the days leading up to school. Her students return July 29. 

As a result, all of her classroom supplies will come out of her own pocket this year, Hawthorne said. She’s planning to buy them in increments because she can’t afford to buy everything in one go. With two children of her own to buy school supplies for, Hawthorne said she’s overwhelmed, frustrated and disappointed. 

“This is pulling from my little budget, and it makes me question: How are we supposed to survive over here?” she said. “I’m so frustrated right now. This is what happens when teachers aren’t asked to sit at the tables where crucial decisions are being made.”

Mississippi lawmakers in special session will consider reforms to the state’s youth court system that would lead to more full-time judges presiding over cases, the creation of two new state-run juvenile jails and the fixing of expired statutes that have led to several lawsuits, Gov. Tate Reeves said. 

At a press briefing hours before lawmakers were convened for the session Wednesday, Reeves said changes will move Mississippi toward creating a uniform youth court system statewide, as opposed to the “fragmented” system that currently exists. The reforms before the Legislature are the beginning of a long road toward improvement, Reeves added.

“Changing a system that has developed over decades will take time,” Reeves said. “But that is not a reason to delay. It is a reason to begin now. We should be honest with the people of Mississippi that no single bill will eliminate juvenile crime, no single bill will fix every child welfare case, and no single bill will immediately produce uniform outcomes in all 82 counties. But we should also be clear that maintaining the status quo is unacceptable.”

Reeves first announced the special session in a social media post on Tuesday afternoon, exactly 24 hours before lawmakers returned to Jackson. The special session is necessary because statutes relating to youth court expired on June 30, thrusting the system into a period of uncertainty that has prompted state and federal litigation. 

READ MORE: State court office will follow judge orders on youth court access, while legal conundrum around secrecy remains

But in addition to reviving the old system, which has statutorily sunsetted, Reeves said House and Senate leaders reached a deal on a wider range of reforms that will “create a far better system.”

Lawmakers are considering four bills, three of which are appropriations measures. In total, the proposals call for $29.5 million in new spending on the youth court system, Reeves said. 

The measures being considered include:

• Moving Mississippi to a system in which full-time judges preside over youth court matters statewide. Today, only 24 of Mississippi’s 82 counties have a full-time judge handling youth court cases. In many other counties, these matters are handled by “part-time referees” who may only serve a few days a month. 
• Creating additional chancellor positions, beginning in 2027, to serve counties that do not currently have full-time youth court judges. There will be a transition period that gives counties with existing youth courts the opportunity to decide whether they want to continue operating those courts or phase into a “chancery court model.”
• Requiring that oral orders from judges be put in writing promptly, so families know exactly what the court has ordered and can exercise their right to appeal, a measure that “strengthens due process protections.”  
• Creating “a statewide evidence-based diversion program” to determine which juveniles can be “redirected before they become more deeply involved in the court system.” This approach reflects the reality that the state “cannot address juvenile crime through punishment alone.”
• Expanding detention capacity at the Oakley Youth Development Center in Raymond and beginning “the process of developing additional secure detention options in both North Mississippi and South Mississippi.” 
• Helping counties cover the cost of housing juveniles in state facilities. Reeves said the legislation would cap the cost at $100 a day per youth.
• Giving youth courts exclusive jurisdiction over truancy issues. 
• Providing a $7.5-million boost to funding for a statewide intervention system run by the Department of Human Services. The Legislature also appropriated $1.5 million for the system, so this would bring the total funding to $9 million. 
• Giving $10 million to the Department of Public Safety to “show that the state is committed to having a detention facility similar to Oakley” in northern and southern areas of the state.

Reeves said the timing for the special session is related to several lawsuits executive agencies are involved in over expired youth court confidentiality laws.

The Office of State Public Defender in June filed a federal lawsuit against the state’s administrative court system because public defenders were not able to access crucial court records that would help serve their clients. The parties in the case had agreed to pause proceedings in the case until July 15, but were willing to extend that pause until July 27.

This lapse also prompted Child Protection Services, an agency under the governor’s control, to file an emergency request with the Mississippi Supreme Court asking the state’s highest court to establish interim youth court rules for how confidentiality records can be shared.

The Supreme Court unanimously granted the request, which essentially allowed the youth court to proceed as usual. This expires on July 24, but the court could extend this.

Democratic leaders in both chambers say Democratic members have “neither seen nor been meaningfully engaged in negotiating,” and some rank-and-file Republican lawmakers said they know little about the agreement.

Reeves said he hopes lawmakers from both parties will still support the reforms. He did not outline a timeline for the special session, but said it was possible lawmakers would not finish their work on Wednesday. He also said there are no definitive plans to add any other topics to the special session agenda “at this time.”

Mississippi Today reporter Taylor Vance contributed to this report

More than a week after the body of Nolan Xavier Wells was found in the waters off a Gulf Coast barrier island where he was last seen, his family met for the first time with the county prosecutor. 

Wells’ parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, met with Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath Wednesday morning in Pascagoula. After the meeting during a news conference, they said McIlrath told them once the investigation is complete, she plans to present the findings to a grand jury. That jury would determine whether there was any criminal wrongdoing and whether anyone should be indicted. 

Although the prosecutor shared those plans and the process the case would follow, McIlrath was not able to share investigation updates with the family, said Ben Crump, the Wonsleys’ attorney. 

“But they still have questions,” he said during a news conference after the meeting. “ … Every morning they wake up, and there’s a hole in their heart and they are trying to say, ‘What happened to my son?’” 

Typically, a district attorney’s office will present non-natural deaths to a grand jury. 

State and independent autopsies have been completed, but results including the cause of death and toxicology, have not been released. On Wednesday, Crump said the legal team would likely share the preliminary findings after Wells’ funeral. 

The service will be held Monday at Center Pointe Church in Ocean Springs. Visitation will be from 9-11 a.m., and the funeral will follow. Afterward, Christine Wonsley said they plan to host a repast at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, bringing together family, close friends and former teammates.

“He would not want us to be sitting around crying and eating,” she said, thanking the community for support.

Christine Wonsley again asked people who plan to demonstrate to keep any marches peaceful, which her son would have wanted.

Last week in New York, the Wonsleys were joined by Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who called for an investigation that can shed light on whether foul play was involved in Wells’ death. 

They also recalled Mississippi’s history of racial injustice and violence, and how investigations into the deaths of Black people aren’t always pursued with the same rigor as the deaths of white victims. 

“Our lived experience tells us that we must question everything, question everybody’s role, the law enforcement role,” Crump said Wednesday. “That is the lived experience of us as Black people.”  

However, some public officials and friends of Wells have pushed back on how some perceive race as a factor in Wells’ case. 

On July 4, the 18-year-old Ocean Springs native traveled by boat with a mostly white group of friends to Horn Island, but he did not return with them. He was reported missing, and following local, state, federal and volunteer search efforts, his body was found off the northwestern tip of the barrier island July 6.  

Wells’ parents have questioned why he separated from the group and why he did not have his phone or keys with him. Crump said at the Wednesday news conference that the legal team’s experts and investigators from the sheriff’s office will inspect the contents of Wells’ phone.  

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department is investigating Wells’ death. The sheriff’s office, the legal team and Christine Wonsley have asked the public to share photos, videos and information from those who were on or near Horn Island that day. 

Sheriff John Ledbetter has also asked the public not to spread unverified information about the case, especially as speculation and commentary have been shared widely on social media. 

On Wednesday, Crump was asked about misinformation being spread in the case, including a picture shared on his Instagram of Wells in a large group at a pool party with drink containers seen in the background. That image was found to be from a month before Wells disappeared. Crump clarified that his office often reposts pictures to encourage people to comment and call in. 

Crump has represented other Mississippians, including the family of Kohen Wiley, the 1-year-old shot by a law enforcement officer in June responding a reported shoplifting from a Walmart in Senatobia and Demartravion “Trey” Reed, the 21-year-old Black man found hanging on Delta State University’s campus in September last year.

BILOXI – When nine young adults tossed their mortarboards into the air at the Little Biloxi Theatre on June 20, it wasn’t their first time graduating from high school. After an emotional celebration that honored the transgender and LGBTQ+ students’ resilience, it became their first graduation without gender-based dress codes or stipulations on how they present themselves. 

Surrounded by friends, local allies and in some cases, family, each student walked across the stage, shook the hand of LGBTQ+ advocate Jensen Luke Matar, and received a “Pride! Graduation” certificate. With their names printed under the intersex-inclusive Progress Pride flag, each student was celebrated for graduating with “courage, authenticity and pride.” 

“We love and appreciate our students, and we care to uplift and serve them always,” said Matar, director of the nonprofit organization Transgender Resources, Advocacy, Networking and Services Program, or TRANS Program, which was a sponsor of the event. 

Students at the event told Mississippi Today that school policies like Harrison County’s restricting gender expression are harmful to their mental health and physical safety. The Harrison County School District is unique among Gulf Coast counties for requiring students to dress according to their “biological sex that is stated in the student’s cumulative folder and permanent record.” 

In contrast, student handbooks for school districts in Hancock County, Ocean Springs, Gulfport, Jackson County, Pascagoula-Gautier, Pass Christian, Long Beach and Biloxi do not include language that restricts students’ clothing choices to their sex assigned at birth. 

For 2023 Harrison Central High School graduate Lana Brown, the June celebration was the first time she walked a graduation stage. Three years ago Harrison Central leaders told Brown, a transgender woman, that she could not wear a dress to her graduation ceremony. She chose not to attend, and filed a lawsuit against the school alleging that the dress code policy, enforced based on gender stereotypes, violated her rights. Although Brown lost the case, she knew at the time that it was a long shot, she told Mississippi Today. Both of her parents were fully supportive, and her dad told her that regardless of the outcome, it was a win to have the incident recorded. 

This year, Brown was the first speaker at Pride Graduation, thrown by several local nonprofit programs. Wearing a formal black dress and in full glam, she addressed her fellow students, who had graduated high school since 2023.

“Three years ago I was, too, ripped from my graduation,” she said. “I was told that I could not walk across the stage unless I dressed like a boy.”

Out of her own experience, Brown said, she learned the importance of self-respect.

“You must respect yourself, and you have to not tolerate the disrespect of others,” she said to the graduates. “It won’t always be easy, but you have to stand up or you will be knocked down.”

Nearly two months ago, a Facebook post by D’Iberville High School drew public attention to the school’s policies around gender nonconforming students. School officials, including then-Principal Cheryl Broadus and Harrison County schools Superintendent William Bentz have not responded to repeated requests for comment from Mississippi Today.  

Brown said she doesn’t know what to say to Harrison County school officials, who in the years after her graduation have doubled down on the dress code. She said they know their policies hurt students.  

“What do you say to one who already knows?” she said. “You’re turning a blind eye. You won’t listen to me.”

Advocates question district’s gender-based dress codes

This was the first year of Pride Graduation, organized by advocates after Harrison County schools students faced gender-norm-based dress codes for senior portraits and the graduation ceremony. Due to the policies, several transgender and gender nonconforming students weren’t able to participate in graduation activities while affirming their identity. 

A letter from the school district that a parent shared on social media, which Mississippi Today reviewed, outlined that male students had to wear a white button-down shirt and black pants, while female students could wear a dress or black slacks. 

A group of parents and advocates are sharing their concerns about restrictive policies at school board meetings. 

At the June 1 Harrison County school board meeting, the first after high school graduation, Noelle Nolan-Rider shared that in the 1960s, when Mississippi was undergoing forced integration, Black students were omitted from multiple yearbooks. Nolan-Rider was one of at least three people working with the TRANS Program who attended the meeting.

Nolan-Rider shared that the first Black woman to graduate from South Natchez High School was her 10th-grade English teacher. 

“She is not in the yearbook,” Nolan-Rider said. “Her name is Patricia West, and it is discrimination when you do that. It was discrimination then. It is discrimination now.”

A school board member who remained off-camera responded to Nolan-Rider, saying students knew they had to adhere to the dress code for their senior portraits, and that in most cases, students get a second chance to take their photo. 

“I want you to understand they are well aware ahead of time, and there’s a second round,” the board member said. 

A Harrison County parent posted on social media a screenshot of the Harrison County School District’s guidelines for senior portraits. 

“Female portraits published in the yearbook will be photographed using the traditional drape. Male portraits published in the yearbook will be photographed using the traditional tuxedo,” the guidelines read. 

Advocates said students told them they were not given a second chance to take their senior portraits. 

The next meeting on June 15, Jonathan Blue, a transgender woman and parent of Harrison County students, attended the meeting. She expressed concerns about D’Iberville High School deadnaming and allegedly digitally altering the photo of a transgender student on social media. School board president Steven Ramsey thanked her for presenting the comment and did not further discuss the comment, according to Blue and corroborated by a recording she shared with Mississippi Today. Harrison County School District policy does not require the board to engage with public comments at the meeting. 

Blue said the board would not allow her to speak at the June 29 meeting. She said she arrived at 5:29 p.m., one minute before the meeting was scheduled to begin, and the employee who had badge access to open the locked door to the meeting waited until it was 5:30 to let her in. The board meeting was underway when she entered, and the sign up sheet had been removed. Because she was not signed up to speak, the board did not allow Blue to give a comment. 

Mississippi Today has reached out to school board members and Bentz, the superintendent, five times since July 10 to verify this sequence of events, and has not gotten a response. 

School boards have wide discretion in how they address public comments, said Jonathan Collins, who researches education policy and teaches political science at Columbia University. While the Harrison County school board’s policies are not unusual, he said they represent a concerning lack of attention to public opinion. 

“Parliamentary procedure is meant to ensure that there is standardization across meetings,” he said. “But it also becomes one of the biggest weapons that school boards can use to keep the public out of the public meeting.”

Collins’ research shows that when a school board is responsive and engaged in public comments, it deepens public trust in their elected officials. Conversely, a lack of engagement tends to reduce trust. 

At the July 13 school board meeting, Blue arrived 30 minutes in advance and was allowed to address the board. She alleged that the district was in violation of federal Title IX policy, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education-related activities. 

In this meeting, Blue estimated that over 20 people showed up who supported the school district’s current dress code policies. Three individuals told the board they didn’t think there were Title IX violations, and they supported the district’s language about students needing to dress as their biological sex.

“I just wanna tell you that I appreciate the work that you are doing,” one speaker said. “We ask that you continue to hold the line for us.”

Blue said she has received a slew of negative comments on social media, and some positive ones. Several commenters, including some anonymous accounts, have labelled her as mentally ill and threatened her with racist and homophobic slurs. Blue said other comments threatened her and her family, including direct threats of violence. 

Blue, who attended the meetings alone, said she left after the public comment period due to concerns about her safety. 

‘I wanted to see myself happy’

The challenges high school students and graduates along the Gulf Coast face extend beyond school photos and board meetings. At the Pride Graduation, recent high school graduates told Mississippi Today about challenges they encountered after “coming out,” or sharing their gender and sexuality identities publicly.

O.K., identified by initials for her safety, is a transgender college student who graduated high school in 2024. As someone who has struggled with depression, speakers’ comments about the resilience of the transgender community resonated with her.

“It takes so much pushing through and remembering that one day it might be better,” she said. 

O.K.’s parents were not present. She said they’re good people but not supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, so she’s sought support elsewhere. Finding the TRANS Program was an important step in that journey, she said. O.K. remembers dressing as a woman for the first time at one of their events. Not only was it accepted, but people cheered her on, she told Mississippi Today.

Now, she’s grateful she was able to keep going during the days she felt numb. 

“I wanted to see myself happy,” O.K. said. “I never want to see myself let the end of the story be, I died sad.”

T.G., another student at the event who asked to be identified by his initials for fear of retaliation, said supportive events like the ones TRANS Program holds are crucial to let people know they’re not alone. In the area of central Mississippi where he’s from, T.G. said there’s little to no public community for LGBTQ+ people. 

A friend of O.K.’s, T.G. has guarded her when she uses the men’s bathroom in states that require people to use the bathroom consistent with the gender they were assigned at birth. 

All the students who spoke to Mississippi Today expressed their love for Mississippi, and their feeling that it would always be home. But many are trying to leave as soon as possible because they don’t feel safe. 

“I’m nine months on (testosterone) now, and I’m still scared to use the bathroom,” said J.W., a transgender student identified by his initials for safety concerns. “It’s pretty much 50/50. I get sir’ed a lot, I get ma’am’ed a lot. I get hit on by old people.”

Others, like Brown, know they may not settle in Mississippi, but are trying to make the most of their time here by educating others about the LGBTQ+ community. 

“Hate is taught. They were taught to hate those who aren’t like them,” she said. “So we’re gonna teach others to accept, to understand, to learn before we judge or push away.”

This story was produced with support from the Sarah Yelena Haselhorst Fund for Health Journalism.

Mukta Joshi is an investigative reporter at Mississippi Today. She is spending a year as a New York Times Local Investigations fellow examining immigration and criminal justice issues. She can be reached at mukta.joshi@nytimes.com.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday vacated a decision made earlier this month, which had required U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide bond hearings within 90 days to immigrants arrested within the country. 

A panel of three judges from the conservative court, which covers Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, had held July 2 that unjustified detention for an indefinite period would violate the Constitution. The decision on Monday came after ICE and Department of Homeland Security officials appealed that judgment, petitioning the full appeals court to rehear the case. The court will consider the case in September. 

More than 61,000 immigrants held across the U.S. have petitioned federal courts for their release after ICE stopped providing bond hearings to those it arrested within the country, which was the norm for decades. Only two federal appeals courts – the 5th Circuit and the 8th Circuit, which covers Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota – have upheld the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy. 

More than 600 of the habeas corpus petitions are from detainees held in Mississippi, nearly all of which are sitting on the desk of Judge David Bramlette III. He has yet to decide any of these petitions based on their merits. As a result, hundreds of detainees have been held indefinitely, some for more than a year.

Monday’s decision will effectively keep them in limbo. 

Over two days, the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Regulation Task Force heard from 19 speakers on the potential impact of data centers in the state. 

The goal was to listen to a variety of people and to gather facts on some of the biggest issues being raised around data centers, such as power bills, water usage and jobs. The task force is expected to make recommendations to the Legislature before next year’s regular session.

“We worked to bring everyone to the table today. From the companies building these facilities to the agencies that regulate them to our utility providers, local elected officials, economic developers and citizens who have concerns,” said Rep. Jill Ford, a Republican from Madison and one of the task force co-chairs. “So we can hear every perspective before making recommendations.” 

The Legislature created the task force during its 2025 session to study AI usage and regulation in the state. Task force members include representatives from the attorney general’s office, Department of Information Technology Services, the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network and industry. 

Power companies address concerns over rate hikes

Mississippians and people across the country have raised concerns about the impact of data centers on neighborhoods, electricity prices and local water systems and rates. 

Representatives from various companies, including Entergy Mississippi and Amazon Web Services, challenged claims that data centers would hike utility costs or deplete water levels. They said they are paying for their infrastructure needs and that the build-out will not raise rates for or negatively impact residential rate payers. 

“Despite what others are asserting, customer rates today, residential rates, are actually lower than they would have been if AWS was not a customer of Entergy Mississippi,” said Jeremy Vanderloo, vice president of business operations and strategy at Entergy.

Vanderloo said that the contracts Entergy has with AWS include a minimum bill, a contract term and termination provisions to protect existing customers from incurring costs if the large customer walks away. 

Time and time again, speakers said they have a lot of trust in the Public Service Commission and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which regulate utility rates and some aspects of data center development. However, in the case of Amazon, some of the PSC and other oversight was waived by lawmakers in 2024.

Speakers: Let local governments regulate

Most speakers coming before the committee emphasized the importance of local control over development and cautioned the Legislature against excessive state regulation.

“Communities know how to handle those issues and they can do it right if they’re allowed to do it,” said Vanderloo. 

“I think the best support the state can offer communities is in areas where we ultimately cannot regulate, said Clinton Mayor Will Purdie. “Most of these issues, as I said, are profoundly local issues best addressed at the community level.”

“When it comes to the issues of noise and the local issues of that nature, those are local matters that should stay local,” said Bill Cork, the executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. “Lauderdale County and Madison County and places like that ought to decide for themselves what they want in their community.”

Regulation of behind-the-meter power generation emerged as one area for future legislation. Behind-the-meter generation is when a company creates its own energy and never hits the public utility system. SpaceXAI is already doing this in Southaven and a Jackson developer recently proposed a plan to generate power for industrial tenants.

“This is not a criticism of a particular company, but when a data center is off the grid or behind the grid, there’s no opportunity for that data center to help lower rates,” Vanderloo said. 

“There’s some gaps and some grey areas in the current law related to behind-the-meter power that eventually this Legislature is going to have to grapple with,” Cork said.

A call for more accountability

Shannon Samsa, the executive director of the Safe and Sound coalition and a Southaven resident, was the only person testifying who said they live close to one of Mississippi’s data centers. Rep. Ford said that the task force had reached out to 10 groups, but only Samsa showed up to talk to the committee. 

Samsa and other Southaven residents live close to SpaceXAI’s data center and private power plant where the company is running over 50 mobile turbines. The turbines are the subject of several ongoing lawsuits.

For almost a year, Southaven residents have voiced concerns about the noise, air pollution and lack of transparency surrounding the project. Some residents can hear noise from the turbines at all times of day, even from inside their homes.

“This isn’t about being for or against AI. It never was. It’s about whether the people of Mississippi deserve transparency, accountability and leaders who will protect the health and well-being of our families and communities before the interests of a private corporation,” Samsa said. 

Mississippi law requires someone running for district attorney to live within the counties they would serve, but Gov. Tate Reeves’ appointment of a white Madison County attorney to temporarily oversee the top prosecutorial office in Black-majority Hinds County is coming under scrutiny.

Some local attorneys raised questions when the governor picked Brad McCullouch, an assistant district attorney in Hinds County since 2023, to replace the county’s elected district attorney, Jody Owens, who resigned after pleading guilty in June in a federal bribery case.

McCullouch, a white man who ran for district attorney as a Republican in Texas in 2012, will oversee the office until a Nov. 3 special election. In the next few months, McCullouch is poised to indict hundreds of felony cases in a county that hasn’t had a white top prosecutor since 2001.

On his weekend radio show, Jackson defense attorney Shaun Yurtkuran wondered if McCullouch can legally lead the office because of a state law specifying district attorneys “possess all the qualifications of county officers,” which is generally taken to include being a resident of the county. 

Joe Hemleben, an appellate attorney who previously worked for the Hinds DA’s office, told Mississippi Today he was considering challenging the validity of any indictments secured under McCullouch’s tenure. But it remains to be seen if anyone will legally challenge McCullouch’s appointment. 

The optics of the selection of a white prosecutor to lead the district attorney’s office in Hinds County has not gone unnoticed. The Republican-run state government has a history of taking over local, Democratic-led law enforcement, said Matt Steffey, a Mississippi Christian University School of Law professor.

“It doesn’t seem like an appointment crafted to please the voters in Hinds County,” Steffey said, noting that McCullouch is the first white man to serve in the position since Ed Peters resigned in 2001. 

McCullouch has already publicly said he won’t run for election. In recent years, Republican governors have had middling electoral success with their appointees in heavily Democratic Hinds County. 

State law gives the governor power to fill a district attorney’s office in the event of a death or resignation. But the law does not specifically say if the governor must appoint a resident within the electoral jurisdiction. 

In an email, Reeves’ press secretary Shelby Wilcher wrote the governor’s office was aware that McCullouch did not live in Hinds County at the time of his appointment. Wilcher added the statute empowering the governor to make an emergency appointment does not “place any eligibility requirements or other limitations on the Governor’s discretion.” 

McCullouch did not respond to an inquiry from Mississippi Today. He already faces challenges in restoring trust in prosecutions undertaken by the office, where DAs have been embroiled in legal scandals going back to the 2000s.

Owens was indicted on federal corruption charges in the fall of 2024 for allegedly taking bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as real estate developers seeking to invest in downtown Jackson. Last month, he pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. 

Because he won’t be running to permanently fill the post, McCullouch said in federal court last week, he would be free to make politically unpopular decisions.

“I’m in such a unique position because I don’t have to run for district attorney,” McCullouch told U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves on Friday during a hearing regarding overcrowding and other problems at the county jail.

The attorney general’s office has yet to opine on whether an appointed district attorney must meet the qualifications of an elected district attorney. But the office has weighed in on comparable scenarios, writing that when an elected superintendent vacates the post, the board of supervisors must pick an appointee who meets the same qualifications. The office has issued similar opinions on vacancies of a municipal utility commissioner and a county prosecuting attorney. 

When there is a vacancy of a circuit court judge or a school board member, the attorney general’s office has held that state law is clear: The appointee must be a resident. 

Wilcher wrote that because some state laws specify that an appointee must be a resident, the Legislature would have done the same for the statute giving the governor the power to appoint an emergency district attorney. 

“However, the Legislature chose wisely to not impose any such limitations,” she wrote. 

Jim Kitchens, a former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice, said he thinks the matter is not settled law because the statute that gives the governor the power to appoint a district attorney in the event of a vacancy does not specifically state whether the appointee must reside in the district. 

Plus, attorney general opinions are not binding. 

“While they may be helpful in many instances, they are mere opinions, not law,” he said. 

Kitchens, a former district attorney, recalled times in decades past when he stepped in for colleagues in other parts of the state who faced personal matters or had to recuse themselves. Kitchens temporarily served in their stead under a different state law that gives a senior circuit court judge the power to appoint a temporary DA. 

To challenge the governor’s appointment, a Hinds County resident would have to file a lawsuit. Kitchens said he believed it was unlikely such an effort would yield a ruling before the Nov. 3 election. 

In 2023, Reeves appointed local attorney Pieter Teeuwissen to fill a Hinds County Court vacancy following the death of LaRita Cooper-Stokes, a longtime judge and wife of Ward 3 Council Member Kenny Stokes. Teeuwissen did not win the election. 

In 2018, Gov. Phil Bryant appointed attorney Joseph Sclafani to serve as a Hinds County Circuit Court judge. 

Faye Peterson, a former Hinds DA, defeated Sclafani, who subsequently became a policy advisor to Reeves in early 2019, according to his LinkedIn.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has ordered the Legislature to convene on Wednesday for a special session to reform Mississippi’s youth court system after lawmakers failed to act during their regular session months ago.

Reeves made the announcement in a social media post on Tuesday afternoon, exactly 24 hours before lawmakers are to return to Jackson. The special session is necessary because statutes relating to youth court expired on June 30. Reeves said lawmakers have reached a deal to “create a far better system,” indicating they will be passing some reform measures and that they are prepared to pass the measure quickly.

“The agreed upon solution (as proposed and agreed by House and Senate leadership) sets up a far better system for both kids who are abused and neglected, as well as those children facing delinquency proceedings,” Reeves said. “For the first time, children and families will have access to full-time judges and moves us toward a uniform youth court system statewide.”

Reeves did not offer additional details on the apparent agreement, but he said he was optimistic that both Republicans and Democrats would support the legislation.

But in a joint statement, Democratic leaders in both chambers said Democratic members have “neither seen nor been meaningfully engaged in negotiating,” and some rank-and-file Republican lawmakers said they know little about the agreement.

“The constituents we represent do not expect us to rubber-stamp legislation we have not had the opportunity to thoroughly review,” the Democratic leaders said. “If this proposal strengthens protections for abused and neglected children, improves our youth court system, and better serves Mississippi families, then it deserves careful consideration. But consideration requires transparency, collaboration, and access to the legislative language — not assumptions about how members will vote.”

Andrew Ketchings, clerk of the House, said the House will convene in the Old Capitol building because the House chamber in the current Capitol is undergoing renovations. Lawmakers had been set to reconvene at the Old Capitol building in May to redraw state Supreme Court districts, but Reeves ultimately called that special session off.

The Old Capitol is the site where Mississippi lawmakers once implemented Jim Crow and voted to secede from the Union over slavery. The plan to host a special session there on redistricting drew fierce criticism from Democratic lawmakers, most of whom are Black.

As of now, Reeves has not called a special session on redistricting. Although unlikely, he could add that to the agenda while lawmakers are back in Jackson starting tomorrow, or call another special session later this year. During his tenure as governor, Reeves has been reluctant to call lawmakers into special session unless at least rough agreements had been reached, to avoid long, costly sessions.

Lawmakers debated a youth court reform bill during their 2026 regular session. The reform package also contained a measure extending the “repealer” in existing law on how confidential youth court records can be shared between courts, state agencies, attorneys and law enforcement.

READ MORE: State court office will follow judge orders on youth court access, while legal conundrum around secrecy remains

When a repealer, or sunset clause, is included in a state law, the law or a section goes away on a specified date unless the Legislature votes to reenact it. Because the Legislature didn’t pass a measure extending the repealer, those confidentiality measures and other youth court laws expired.

The state Supreme Court issued an order earlier this month that state officials said will allow youth court business to proceed as usual. That order expires on July 24, but the Court could extend that order.

The special session will begin Wednesday at 3 p.m.

COLUMBUS — Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, at a Tuesday press conference called for banning members of Congress and their immediate families from trading stocks and criticized his Republican opponent for opposing such a measure last year. 

Colom said in his hometown of Columbus that if elected, he will push Congress to pass a measure that would give independent investigators “more teeth” to enforce ethics laws for congressional officials, require public officials to disclose more of their financial information, and establish an ethics office in the U.S. Senate.

“A rule with no consequences is just a suggestion,” Colom said. “And Congress has run on suggestions for too long.” 

In December, incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith voted to block a stock-trading ban proposal from advancing out of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.  She joined the Republicans on the committee to block the proposal from Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia.  

Jake Monssen, Hyde-Smith’s campaign manager, didn’t directly address Colom’s stock-ban proposal, but told Mississippi Today in a statement that Colom’s press conference was “nothing more than political theater” and that his campaign was “just plain sad to watch”

“Can you imagine someone this deceitful as a federal judge?” Monssen said. “Every day, Sen. Hyde-Smith is further vindicated in her decision to block him from becoming one.”

The Democratic nominee also criticized Hyde-Smith for using campaign donations to pay for travel to Las Vegas. Hyde-Smith has not directly addressed repeated questions about her Las Vegas trips, but her campaign has said in a previous statement that the senator routinely “raises funds to support her campaign from donors across the country.” 

Colom is the elected district attorney for Lowndes, Clay, Oktibbeha and Noxubee counties. He was first elected in 2015 and won reelection twice. Former President Joe Biden nominated Colom for a federal judgeship in 2022. His nomination received bipartisan support, but Hyde-Smith blocked his confirmation. 

Hyde-Smith is a former state senator, serving as a Democrat for much of that time, and later as state agriculture commissioner. Former Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her to the U.S. Senate in 2018 to fill the seat vacated by former Sen. Thad Cochran when he resigned. She was elected to a full term in 2020 and is up for reelection this year.

Colom and Hyde-Smith will compete against each other in the general election on Nov. 3, along with independent candidate Ty Pinkins.