JACKSON, Miss. — Authorities in east Mississippi run a “school-to-prison pipeline” that locks up students for infractions like flatulence or wearing the wrong color socks, a policy that mainly affects black and disabled children, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday in a federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Jackson says officials in the city of Meridian and Lauderdale County have policies that allow students to be arrested and shipped 80 miles to a juvenile detention center. The Meridian Public School District is not named as a defendant, but the lawsuit says incarceration is used as a “medium for school discipline.”
The lawsuit claims Meridian police arrest students without determining whether there is probable cause, and the students are routinely jailed. Once arrested, the students end up on probation and future school violations could be considered a violation that requires them to serve the suspension in the juvenile detention center.
