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This article was produced by the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center in collaboration with The New York Times. Learn more about our work here.

The Office of the State Public Defender in Mississippi filed a lawsuit Wednesday arguing that state officials are jeopardizing the rights of parents and children who find themselves in youth court.

The filing came just days before a seismic change in state law is scheduled to take effect July 1. Defense attorneys across the state argue that the change will worsen the already spotty access to youth court case information they need to adequately defend their clients.

Mississippi law makes youth court proceedings and records strictly confidential. That is left unchanged. But a separate law that contains the necessary exceptions to confidentiality – which allow the child welfare agency, courts, providers and lawyers to communicate and ensure families are treated fairly and receive needed services – is set to vanish next week. The statute has an automatic repealer, meaning the Legislature must actively renew it every few years.

In their session earlier this year, lawmakers considered a youth court reform bill, which, among other sweeping changes, would have kept the exceptions to confidentiality intact. But after much negotiation, lawmakers let the proposal die in the final days of the session without renewing the exceptions. 

The public defenders’ complaint described the impending law change as a “ticking time bomb” and called out officials on all levels for failing to take action. 

In the civil rights lawsuit, filed against the Administrative Office of the Courts, the public defender’s office is asking the federal court to declare the practice of denying youth court records unconstitutional. It also requests a temporary restraining order and injunction requiring the office to provide counsel for parents with access to youth court records.

Come next week, the lawyers argued they’ll be otherwise blocked from accessing their client’s records – something they say already occurs in some counties, but would become mandatory statewide. 

In the impending legal landscape, Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services Commissioner Andrea Sanders warned that youth court proceedings would “grind to a halt,” Mississippi Today first reported in May. The change could also jeopardize parents’ ability to push back against court decisions they think are unfair, defense lawyers said.

The Administrative Office of the Courts was not responsible for the law lapsing, but it governs the policies and procedures of youth court access. The lawsuit alleges that both the office and local youth court judges routinely deny requests for access to records from parent defenders.

“The fact it’s going to go from bad to worse is why we felt we had to file today,” said State Public Defender Andre De Gruy.

Not all counties are the same. Lee County Court Judge Staci Bevill, who oversees youth court cases, said access to records isn’t an issue in her county because parent defenders in her court are granted access to the case management system. For any outside private attorneys taking youth court cases before her, she enters an order giving them access. 

Bevill, who chairs the Council of Youth Court Judges, said she’s also working with other youth court judges on a stock order they may file in hopes of rectifying the upcoming lapse in confidentiality exceptions and continuing providing records. But there’s no mandate that judges across the state participate.

Parents can appeal if a family court judge revokes custody of their children. But these challenges are relatively uncommon and difficult to raise, experts told Mississippi Today, in part because of the difficulties accessing court records. Appeals could become even harder, if not impossible, starting next week without a measure to allow such records to be obtained by defense layers, experts said.

Take the case of Redonn Malone, a father who is incarcerated and nearly lost parental rights to his now 3-year-old child. He secured a rare legal victory at the Mississippi Supreme Court last week.

When Malone’s baby tested positive for drugs after birth, child welfare officials took custody of the child and recommended Malone take rehabilitative measures for them to reunify. But a Jackson County judge disagreed. After hearing about Malone’s criminal history, including that Malone had stabbed a man in 2021, the judge determined the state did not have to make the required efforts to reunify Malone with his child. Malone later received a 15-year prison sentence for the assault. The next step would have been to terminate his parental rights.

But four state Supreme Court justices overturned the youth court judge’s decision on June 18, finding that Malone’s past offenses did not meet the legal standard for bypassing reunification. The opinion returned the case to youth court, providing Malone another opportunity. “The youth court ‘acknowledged that Malone was excited about being a father for the first time in his life,’” the opinion reads.

The Office of the State Public Defender represented Malone.

The office argued in its lawsuit filed Wednesday that making youth court records entirely inaccessible to parents and their lawyers would violate the parents’ constitutional rights to due process. There are other concerns, including whether child protection workers could communicate information to doctors or service providers.

“I really think youth court is going to end up shutting down because CPS is not allowed to share information. They can be held criminally liable for it,” said Jennifer Morgan, the parent defense program manager for the public defender’s office. “Our clients, the parents, have the greatest interest in information about their children and we want to make sure that right is preserved for them.”

The public defenders’ lawsuit was filed against the Administrative Office of the Courts, which helps run the day-to-day operation of Mississippi’s judicial system and controls access to the statewide filing and docket management system for youth courts. A representative said she could not comment on pending litigation.

Regardless of the impending statute change, the complaint alleges that the state’s youth court system is already structured in a way that leads to constitutional violations. The suit takes issue with secrecy around court decisions in child protection cases as well as delinquency cases against minors. Youth courts make “life-changing decisions behind closed doors,” the lawsuit states, such as permanently severing parental rights or locking children in detention.

Without access, the lawsuit argues, “parents and children are completely in the dark about why the government is trying to destroy their family or lock up a child, and the attorneys standing next to them function as little more than lay companions, stripped of any meaningful ability to apply their expertise and experience to oppose the full weight of the Mississippi government bearing down on their clients’ fundamental rights.”

It describes the custom of some judges, based on their interpretation of the confidentiality statute, of ordering families with youth court cases not to speak about their case with anyone or risk jail time. It also claimed that judges and CPS may retaliate against parents they deem difficult.

“The broad range of outcomes you have is because people can’t talk to each other. The secrecy envelopes everything,” said Arman Miri, a defense attorney who represents parents in the Pine Belt area and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. 

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson ruled Wednesday that the plaintiffs in Harris v. DeSoto County did not provide enough evidence that DeSoto County district maps were drawn to intentionally dilute Black voting power.

In ruling for DeSoto County, Davidson wrote, “plaintiffs cannot prove their claims for vote dilution pursuant to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and judgment must be awarded to defendants.”

Davidson’s ruling comes after hearing arguments in the case in March,

The federal lawsuit, filed in September of 2024, alleged that the 2022 DeSoto County electoral map  diluted Black voting power in county office elections. The plaintiffs sought a new redistricting plan and special elections for positions on the boards of supervisors and education and for the election commission, plus the offices of constable and justice court judge. 

The ruling comes in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Louisiana v Callias. The decision weakened the federal Voting Rights Act’s protections against racially discriminatory redistricting.

The ruling triggered protests and political battles over redistricting and the future of voting rights across the country.

The ACLU of Mississippi released a statement calling the decision in the DeSoto County case  “deeply disappointing.”

“The (recent U.S. Supreme Court) Callais opinion pretends to adhere to the text of the Voting Rights Act and only updates the test for proving vote dilution,” the statement read. “In reality, the Supreme Court is directing federal courts to close their eyes and ignore the clear results of discriminatory maps.”

Mike Hurst, state Republican Party chairman, represented DeSoto County in the case. Hurst told MPB the case was nothing more than, “Democrats are mad they can’t win an election in DeSoto County because it’s a Republican county.” 

DeSoto County, located just south of Memphis in northwest Mississippi, has been one of the state’s fastest growing counties for years. The Black population of DeSoto also has been growing and now represents more than 30% of the total population of 190,000.

None of the 25 county offices determined by the map is held by a Black person. However, DeSoto County does have a Black sheriff elected countywide, Democratic Black state legislators elected from majority-Black districts and a Black Republican House member elected from a majority-white district. The lawsuit did not address legislative districts.

NESHOBA COUNTY — Gubernatorial ambitions, declared and yet-to-be, were in the rainy Mississippi summer air on Wednesday as statewide officials delivered political speeches at the Neshoba County Fair. 

Republican Attorney General and prospective gubernatorial candidate Lynn Fitch said an announcement regarding her political future is soon forthcoming. A potential rival for the state’s highest office, term-limited Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, again hinted at a run for the state’s top job, declaring he would keep working as long as Mississippians would “keep hiring” him. 

Republicans Fitch and Hosemann both stopped short of announcing a run for governor, but Fitch, who could also run for a third term as attorney general, said she would make her 2027 intentions known soon. 

Fitch said, “I’ve been very encouraged by people across the state, and I’m so grateful for the encouragement and faith and the trust people have put into me as the attorney general and the treasurer. I’m excited about next steps.” 

In a speech that pointed toward the future, Fitch said Mississippi was nearing a pivotal moment that would shape its trajectory for years to come. 

“We’re at a moment when we can transform Mississippi from one of the nation’s best kept secrets to the very top of the leaderboard,” Fitch said. 

Fitch pointed to the improved reading scores among elementary school students, that some have dubbed the “Mississippi miracle,” as evidence the state is on the right track and needs to build on recent gains. She also said the state’s pro-business climate has led to gains in economic development and private investment. With respect to her own office, Fitch pointed to her work cracking down on illegal drug rings and Medicaid fraud. 

The first day of political speeches took place exactly four years after the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. That decision, which was argued by attorneys in Fitch’s office, upended what had been a nationwide right to abortion. In Mississippi, a state with some of the worst maternal health outcomes, abortion is now illegal except under a narrow set of circumstances. 

“Mississippi, led by the attorney general’s office, showed the world how to make legal history. And then Mississippi showed the world how to make good on the promise to empower women and promote life,” Fitch said. 

Standing beside the stage after her speech, Fitch faced pointed questions from an activist who questioned Fitch’s claim that she had “empowered women” after working to outlaw abortion. Fitch didn’t answer many of the specific questions, but said she wanted to protect women and children.     

Speaking to reporters, Fitch also applauded the Mississippi Supreme Court’s recent ruling that said her office has the power to sue to recover misspent welfare money and not State Auditor Shad White, who is also a likely gubernatorial candidate. 

White did not attend the fair because he is currently deployed to the Middle East as a captain in the Mississippi Army National Guard. One of the event organizers read a statement on White’s behalf wishing attendees a “safe and happy fair.” 

Hosemann in his speech highlighted legislation passed during the most recent session including a $2,000 teacher pay raise, infrastructure investment and banning the drug misoprostol, which can be used as an abortion medication. 

Hosemann, who leads the state Senate, also left no doubt that he would push to redraw Mississippi’s electoral maps after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision. The ruling cleared the way for states such as Mississippi to eliminate majority-Black electoral districts. 

“We’re going to redistrict Mississippi,” Hosemann said. “One of the few rights we have as a state is our right to set the way we elect people and their districts.” 

Hosemann recently created a Senate select committee to study redistricting. The majority-white, Republican-dominated Legislature could be poised to revert to the maps lawmakers initially drew in 2022 to account for population shifts across the state. A redrawing of those maps could erase some small gains Democrats made in the Legislature in recent years.

“When we tried to redistrict Mississippi, the way your Legislature, the people you hired, wanted to redistrict Mississippi, the federal court said, ‘no, you can’t do it that way. You’ve got to redistrict another way. We want other people elected.’ The Democrats used that to make sure they elected Democrats,” Hosemann said.

When asked whether he was concerned such a move would dilute Black political power and representation in Mississippi, Hosemann said the Callais decision barred states from considering race when drawing electoral maps. He also said people would have the ability to make their voices heard at upcoming select committee hearings. 

Hosemann said he expects the Legislature to redraw legislative, state Supreme Court and congressional districts. On the specific question of whether he wants the Legislature to redraw maps to intentionally oust Rep. Bennie Thompson, the state’s lone Democratic and lone Black member of Congress, Hosemann said that wasn’t his primary concern. 

“I’m not getting into one congressman or another congressman,” Hosemann said.

The two Republican candidates who have officially entered the gubernatorial race, former House Speaker Philip Gunn and Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, were also at Founder’s Square shaking hands and chatting with fairgoers. 

Gunn told Mississippi Today he was traveling around the state meeting with voters, and that he was the only potential candidate with a strong legislative background to champion. Gipson is scheduled to speak at the fair on Thursday.

“I think that’s the distinguishing factor between me and everyone else that’s talking about running,” Gunn said. “None of them were involved with getting the votes to make those things happen.”

State Treasurer David McRae, who was seen by some as a potential candidate for lieutenant governor, announced on Wednesday that he is running for a third term as treasurer.

NESHOBA COUNTY – Two of Mississippi’s candidates for U.S. Senate braved rainy, muddy conditions at the Neshoba County Fair on Wednesday, with each casting themselves as independent-minded and ready to bring change to a polarized Congress. 

Democratic candidate Scott Colom and independent Ty Pinkins spoke under the tin-roofed pavilion at Founder’s Square just over four months before November’s midterm federal election. Congress is in session this week, which prevented incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith from attending the fair, her campaign told Mississippi Today.  

In November, Democrats aim to reclaim majorities in the House and Senate as a check on Republican President Donald Trump’s power. Republicans are working to protect Senate incumbents in ruby red states such as Mississippi, as polling indicates a strong midterm for Democrats might be forthcoming. The election has kicked off a fierce fundraising battle and a flurry of spending from national groups. Leading Senate Democrats see the Mississippi race as a long-shot opportunity for Democrats, who need to net four more seats to reclaim a majority in the upper chamber. 

Colom is running to become the first Democrat since the 1980s to win a U.S. Senate race in Mississippi. To do so, he’ll need to oust Hyde-Smith, a former state agriculture commissioner who became a U.S. senator in 2018 after former Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her to fill the seat vacated by longtime Sen. Thad Cochran. Pinkins, an attorney, is running as an independent after unsuccessful runs for state and federal offices as a Democrat.  

Colom struck a bipartisan tone at the outset of his speech, recounting visiting Neshoba as a 9-year-old with his father, who at one point worked for Ronald Reagan, the former Republican president who drew national attention when he spoke at the fair in favor of “states’ rights.” That personal background, Colom said, would inform his approach as a U.S. senator.    

“I’m not running to be another Democratic senator,” Colom said. “I’m running to be Mississippi’s senator.”

Colom, a district attorney for Noxubee, Clay, Lowndes and Oktibbeha counties, went on to highlight his work prosecuting criminals and vowed to protect Second Amendment rights in the Senate. Colom also vowed to promote policies that lower the cost of consumer goods and railed against the “tax breaks to billionaires,” which he said Hyde-Smith had supported. 

And so began the fire and brimstone portion of Colom’s remarks, which cast Hyde-Smith as an ally of billionaires and the national Republican Party. Colom accused Hyde-Smith of billing trips to Las Vegas to her campaign account, a claim the senator’s campaign has steadfastly denied.  

“Listen y’all, she could have at least spent money on the Gulf Coast,” Colom said. “We got nice hotels, we got nice restaurants.”

He also criticized Hyde-Smith for supporting tariffs that have harmed Mississippi farmers, a remark that was punctuated by a shout from the crowd imploring voters to “put Cindy out to pasture!”

Nathan Calvert, Hyde-Smith’s campaign communications director, said in a statement before Colom’s speech that she was “in Washington working on behalf of all Mississippians.” 

Hyde-Smith’s campaign has criticized Colom’s ties to national Democratic groups and accused him of being a “transgender defender” out of touch with Mississippi values. She has also defended her record as an advocate for Mississippi’s agriculture industry and promoted her close working relationship with President Trump. 

In his remarks, Pinkins did not criticize Colom or Hyde-Smith by name, but he said his opponents were part of a two-party system that fails to live up to their principles 

“Let’s stop allowing these two parties to send mediocre candidates to Washington, D.C., to represent a state full of extraordinary people,” Pinkins said. “I had the courage to step away from the two-party system and offer you something different on the ballot this year.”

Pinkins said his agenda in Congress would be focused on getting big money out of politics. To that end, he also called himself the only candidate who is not “beholden to the pro-Israel lobby.” 

In addition to the Senate candidates, Michael Chiaradio, the Democratic nominee for the 3rd Congressional District currently held by Republican Michael Guest, said in his fair speech that he would aim to bridge partisan divides in Washington.

With Congress in session, Guest also did not show up on Wednesday. 

The Neshoba County Fair is set to continue with more political speeches on Thursday.

By requiring government ID, Mississippi’s Capitol Police have effectively banned many homeless people in a portion of Jackson from obtaining a panhandling permit, homeless people and advocates say. 

Under a 2025 state law called the Safe Solicitation Act, people wishing to collect charitable donations next to intersections and roadways in Mississippi must apply for a daily permit that costs up to $25. If they do not, they can face up to six months in jail and a maximum $300 fine. 

The law was written by Rep. Shanda Yates, an independent who represents northeast Jackson, an area covered by the Capitol Complex Improvement District. This part of Yates’ district is patrolled by the state-run Capitol Police and contains some of the city’s most visible panhandling along I-55 Frontage Road. 

Yates did not respond to calls and texts from Mississippi Today. In 2025, she told the Clarion Ledger the bill was intended to address “a safety issue” with people panhandling next to busy roads. 

The law applies statewide, with implementation left up to local police departments. But in the CCID, applicants seeking to panhandle need one form of government ID, a requirement implemented by the Capitol Police and not specified in state law. 

Between March 10 and May 7, Capitol Police issued 26 panhandling permits, according to a handwritten log of applicants filed in a federal lawsuit challenging the act. 

Bailey Martin Holloway, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email that Capitol Police have not denied any applicants and that all applicants had an ID.

But for many of an estimated 150 chronically homeless people in Jackson, the ID requirement is nearly impossible to meet, homeless people and advocates say. 

“None of them have that,” said Dee Dee Barlow Moore, who visits encampments in Jackson and helps homeless people connect with community services. “I would say 95% of homeless people do not have identification.” 

The reason homeless people lack IDs is usually theft, Moore said. And once someone no longer has an ID, getting a new one can be difficult, especially if other documents that could prove their identity were also stolen. 

Rachel Wright said she became homeless in 2023 after calamity struck: She was diagnosed with breast cancer, learned she had an autoimmune condition and her house burned down, destroying her truck. Without transportation, it was hard to work. 

She stayed with relatives, but she said she soon felt like she was intruding. Sleeping outside, it wasn’t long before her belongings – including her driver’s license – were stolen. 

“When you’re out on the streets, people steal from you constantly,” she said. “You just kind of lose the fundamental things you need to be in society.”

Recently, Wright connected with Joshua Tom, an attorney for the ACLU of Mississippi. He asked her if she wanted to join a class-action lawsuit he was working on in partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center challenging the Safe Solicitation Act for violating people’s right to free speech.

A former music journalist, Wright was familiar with the First Amendment. She didn’t hesitate to say yes. She’s now one of three plaintiffs asking a federal judge to strike down the Safe Solicitation Act and allow them to continue panhandling without permits. 

Judges in other Southern states have quashed similar laws over the years.

“The most protected location for speech in America is along streets and sidewalks,” Tom told Mississippi Today. 

Not so for the homeless in Jackson, Wright said. Most days, she retrieves a piece of cardboard from a dumpster and scrawls the same message: “Homeless, hungry, anything helps.” 

But the ritual hasn’t brought her much luck. Since Capitol Police began ramping up enforcement of the Safe Solicitation Act earlier this year, Wright said officers have yelled at her and told her to move along, even if she isn’t actively “flying a sign.” 

“It’s not illegal to sit there on a bucket,” she said. 

In its lawsuit, the ACLU wrote that Capitol Police have cited at least one person for panhandling without a permit since the law went into effect based on an affidavit filed in October. 

Wright said that one citation doesn’t capture the full impact of the law, which she said officers use as a pretext to search people’s belongings. 

One day, Wright said she was standing in her usual spot when an officer pulled up beside her and asked if she had a permit. When she said no, she said he told her she was “being a smart ass” and checked her bags. 

Inside, Wright had a rubber pipe that she said she’d found and wanted to show to a friend. 

The officer arrested Wright for drug paraphernalia and took her into custody. She said he made her leave her pink bike behind, which she believes was stolen. 

Now, if Wright wanted to seek a permit, she’d have to walk to the Capitol Police office on West Street – miles away from the city’s frequently trafficked intersections where it’s easier to solicit donations.

Gov. Tate Reeves has set special elections for Nov. 3 to fill two vacancies in the Mississippi House after the recent deaths of Reps. William “Bo” Brown and Price Wallace.

Brown, a Democrat from Jackson, died at 81 on June 8 after a lengthy illness. He had served House District 70 in Hinds County since 2020 and had a long career in public service including working for more than a decade at the U.S. Department of Justice and as a program manager for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Wallace, a Republican from Mendenhall, died unexpectedly at 64 on June 3. He had served House District 77 in Rankin and Simpson counties since winning a special election in 2018. Wallace, a poultry farmer, served as House Constitution Committee chairman and had been leading a push to restore the state ballot initiative right to voters.

The special elections will coincide with the federal midterm elections on Nov. 3. In his statement announcing the special state House elections, Reeves said the deadline for candidates to qualify is Aug. 20, and that if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the special elections, runoffs will be held on Dec. 1.

“Voter Voices” is a series of Mississippians sharing their thoughts on voting rights, the state’s history of voter suppression and the new gerrymandering push embroiling Mississippi, the South and the nation after the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Louisiana case gutted the federal Voting Rights Act’s requirements for majority Black districts.

Carolyn Moore moved back to her native Mississippi in 2019. When she got her driver’s license in New Albany, a box on the form asked if she would like to register to vote. 

She checked yes.

“I thought that was my voter registration,” she said. “When I went to vote for governor, I was told that I was not registered to vote.”

What happened aggravated her, she said. “That was something on the driver’s license form. It was very misleading.”

At the time, circuit clerks reported some problems with not receiving the information from people registering to vote when obtaining or renewing a driver’s license.

Moore couldn’t vote in that election, but she did go later to the county courthouse to register.

READ MORE: ‘We’re going backwards.’ Mississippians share experiences of voter suppression, dread of redistricting battle

Later, she went to vote in a primary, she said. “As I approached the Democrats’ table, a white male poll worker said, ‘The Republican table is over here.’ He assumed that all white people would vote Republican.”

That encounter left her “hopping mad when he told me I was at the wrong table,” she said.

Moore has since joined the League of Women Voters. “If I had known then what I know now,” she said, “I would have reported it.”

Deep South Today, a nonprofit network of newsrooms in Louisiana and Mississippi, is pleased to announce it has received a $300,000 grant from Public Welfare Foundation to expand reporting about the judicial system at Mississippi Today.

“Mississippi Today’s reporting about the state’s criminal justice system has illuminated critical issues, ended abusive conduct and led to important policy reforms,” said Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today. “We are grateful to Public Welfare Foundation for providing the support to continue and expand this important work.”

With this added capacity, Mississippi Today will investigate the conditions of juvenile detention centers in Mississippi. Its journalists also will report holistically on the maze of state courts, prosecutors and systems faced by young people and their families. Mississippi Today’s justice team will explore adult criminal legal data to mine information on the current state of public defense in Mississippi and the outcomes for its clients, as well as unmet needs for right to counsel, parole reforms and solutions to preventing long-term confinement.

“Youth courts and juvenile detention centers deal with complex problems that profoundly affect the lives of families and communities, yet the systems are often shrouded in secrecy. And Mississippi’s public defender system has long been short-staffed and underfunded,” said Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Emily Wagster Pettus. “Investigating these systems is an important public service that our journalists take seriously.”

Mississippi Today will approach these issues with a multifaceted portfolio of reporting, including daily/breaking news stories as well as deeper-dive investigative features, to explore the state’s complicated criminal justice framework and bring much-needed transparency to its processes.

The coverage will prioritize several key components: the development of a database to monitor people who are eligible for parole and their release, alongside an analysis of the taxpayer costs associated with Mississippi’s rising incarceration rates.

Additionally, the project will document effective solutions and success stories within the state’s criminal justice system, highlighting the work of public defenders, youth court administrators, prosecutors and advocates. This work will involve collaborative reporting alongside beat reporters specialized in health, education, government and Jackson-specific issues.

“Mississippi Today’s justice team has shown that rigorous, sustained reporting can change outcomes for vulnerable Mississippians,” said Adam Ganucheau, executive editor and chief content officer at Deep South Today. “This support lets us expand that work at a moment when it’s needed most.”

About Deep South Today

Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today, Verite News and The Current. Its new Arkansas Today newsroom will launch in fall 2026.

Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now the largest newsroom in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color. The Current is a nonprofit news organization founded in 2018 serving Lafayette and southern Louisiana.

With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.

About Public Welfare Foundation

Public Welfare Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking organization focused on catalyzing a transformative approach to justice that is community-led, restorative and racially just through investments in criminal justice and youth justice reforms.

Today’s show features wrap-ups of the CWS and U.S. Open, with veteran Mississippi soccer coach Dean Joseph joining the pod to discuss how the tournament is shaping up and the wizardry of Lionel Messi.

Stream all episodes here.

Parents, former educators and graduates are calling for leadership changes at the Mississippi Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. 

They say the schools’ leadership isn’t well-versed in Deaf and blind culture, students don’t have access to American Sign Language and Braille resources and the schools lack experienced educators and staff.

As of Tuesday, a petition demanding for the resignation of Superintendent LaMarlon Wilson and various administrators at the schools has gotten 400 signatures since it was created a week ago by Victorica Monroe, a 2008 graduate.

“We believe that immediate leadership change is necessary to restore public trust, strengthen institutional accountability, improve educational outcomes, and ensure that the Mississippi Schools for the Deaf and the Blind once again reflects the excellence, bilingual philosophy, and student-centered mission that have defined its heritage for generations,” the petition reads. 

Wilson said in an emailed statement that a “small group of stakeholders” are raising concerns. Administrators are properly experienced, he said, and the schools have increased interpreter positions, expanded professional learning opportunities related to deaf education and made significant efforts toward expanding American Sign Language access. 

Alumni say the state’s only public schools for children who are deaf or blind are a far cry from the places they knew when they attended. 

Monroe, an adjunct professor at Gallaudet University, said that when they were a student, they’d look forward to the end of summer because it meant they could go back to school. 

“All of my friends were there,” Monroe said. “It always felt like home. I was always so excited to be back at school to be with my friends and the staff because I was able to converse 24/7. The only time you would stop was when we were sleeping.”

Monroe said they received more than a typical education at the school — their experience prepared them for life as a deafblind person.

“It was so valuable, so unique and so much different from a general education school,” Monroe said. “I still truly feel like that is my home.”

But when Monroe visited the schools last year, they became concerned after a conversation with Wilson about the importance of school staff understanding the American Sign Language and English Bilingual approach for teaching, which treats ASL as a child’s first language and English as a second language.

Bart Williams, another graduate, similarly grew worried after visiting his alma mater last year. 

“My heart broke because I couldn’t believe what was happening,” said Williams, who is deaf. “Teachers weren’t paying attention to the kids. There were kids playing in the classroom but there was no signing. All of the teachers are speaking, and I was like, ‘Where are their hands?’”

Parents and former educators say students with visual impairments may also not be receiving all of the services to which they’re entitled under federal law. 

Elise Corbin’s son, Landen Walden, graduated as valedictorian from the School for the Blind in May. Corbin said Walden’s lattice degeneration, the thinning of retinas in both eyes that causes tears and detachments, has rapidly worsened over the past two years because he’s on his computer for online classwork and tests for hours each day — something explicitly prohibited in his individualized education plan. 

Corbin found out in March that her son needs to have his right eye removed.

“Every day he’d come home just defeated, broke down and exhausted,” she said. “It was a battle for him to go to school.”

Corbin said she has tried but been unable to talk to school administration for months because of the frequent staff turnover.

The Mississippi Schools for the Deaf and the Blind has had 10 superintendents since 2019, including Wilson, the current leader, said Jane Harty, a former teacher at the School for the Blind. There is frequent turnover among certified educators, too, Harty said.

State and district officials are committed to ensuring students at the schools “receive a high-quality education, communication skills, independence preparing for successful transitions to post secondary life and will continue to work collaboratively with families, staff, and community partners to support student success,” Wilson wrote in a statement. 

The petition lists a number of requests, including the appointment of interim leadership experienced in Deaf and blind education, a review of the schools’ programs and practices, and collaboration with members of the Deaf and blind communities. 

Harty said she and other former educators and parents have a meeting next month with State Superintendent of Education Lance Evans to discuss their issues.

Agency leaders have worked with officials at the Mississippi Schools for the Deaf and the Blind to  “to ensure the unique needs of our students are met,” Shanderia Minor, a spokesperson for the education agency, said in an email. “MSDB will always be a top priority, and decisions will be made and concerns addressed in the best interests of our students.”

But Corbin disagreed that state education officials have treated the schools as a priority. 

“I don’t think they have been listening,” she said. “And my phone call list from today can show a host of people who agree.”