OurTupelo

Mississippi Today reporters Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison join Adam Ganucheau to discuss Mississippi lawmakers’ two-day hearings, when experts talked about the pros and cons of cutting the state’s income tax and raising other taxes. 

Listen to the episode here.

Read a transcript of the episode below.

Adam Ganucheau: Welcome to The Other Side, Mississippi Today’s political podcast. I’m your host, Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side lets you hear directly from the most connected players and observers across the spectrum of politics in Mississippi. From breaking news to political strategy to interviews with candidates and elected officials, we’ll bring you facts, perspectives and context that helps you cut through the noise and understand all sides of the story.

Joining us today are my colleagues, Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison. Hey y’all, how you doing? 

Bobby Harrison: All right. How y’all doing? 

Geoff Pender: Hey Adam. Hey Bobby. 

Adam Ganucheau: Thanks for being here. Look, I think the last time we got together we sort of talked about how we knew that there were some hearings on Mississippi’s tax code coming up basically.

And that has happened. And I thought that today might be a good chance to talk about it. I know that tax policy isn’t always the most sexy topic to discuss, but I think all three of us would agree that what’s being discussed at the Capitol right now has the ability to truly change the future, financial viability and sort of the future state budget for years and years to come.

So I want to jump into this .You know, I guess, just to recap very briefly to how we got here, in the 2021 session House Speaker, Philip Gunn had this idea. He’s had this idea for several years to fully eliminate individual income tax. And in order to do that, that makes up close to I think one third of the state’s general fund revenue every year.

So a third of the money that we make every year to spend on basic public services comes from the collections of individual income taxes. What Gunn wanted to do in order to sort of fill the void that cutting individual income taxes would leave in the revenue, he wants to increase other taxes, including the sales tax, including some other consumption taxes.

You know, there’s there’s a litany of those, and we can get into that. And honestly, we might not even need to. So when the House passed Gunn’s plan in 2021 session, the Senate didn’t take it up. They weren’t ready. They thought it was rushed. They were seemingly kind of caught off guard by the House passing this proposal.

So what they said in the 2021 session was, “We’re going to study this this fall.” So Geoff, last week you covered the two days of hearings that ended up being this sort of Senate ” study session,” if you will. The headline on your analysis following these two days of hearings I think is just so great, and I think it’s a good jumping off point for you to start talking about is: “Who will lawmakers listen to on taxes: Grover Norquist or Mississippi business leaders?” Geoff, it was an interesting couple of days for sure as you wrote about interesting list of “experts” to talk about everything and for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to listen to. Tell us about those two days of hearings. 

Geoff Pender: Sure. Like you mentioned, these were originally going to be Senate hearings mainly because the House didn’t want to participate after the Senate didn’t take up its plan, but these were going to be Senate hearings broadly on tax policy, broadly on revenue, and instead they kind of morphed into a first off a joint committee eight members each from the House and the Senate. And it became more of a trial litigating Philip Gunn’s plan than it was just a broad tax policy study, so it was really interesting. Both sides, the House and the Senate, sort of each got to pick their experts who testified.

And like I said, it became sort of a trial on Philip Gunn’s tax plan.

Adam Ganucheau: On Philip Gunn’s tax plan, you’ve written about how there doesn’t seem to be really any specific support from any group. I mean, maybe a couple here and there to fully endorse his plan at least. I think there are aspects of it, which is to be fair, a very broad ranging plan that they passed in 2021. But you’ve written all about how it doesn’t seem to have much support.

Geoff Pender: In state. Now it’s gotten some support from a, I guess you would say, some support in theory from some national conservative tax think tanks, and their policy is in general, that consumption taxes are better than income taxes, that they’re flatter or fairer or whatnot. As far as Mississippi groups— and Philip Gunn has traveled the state and talked with a lot of people— there are very few if any Mississippi groups that have just fully endorsed his plans. Some say they in general endorse the concept, but yeah, he’s had trouble getting any actual buy in of his plan, and he’s actually run into some opposition or at the least some real skepticism about his plan.

One group where that’s been seen is some of our business leaders. We saw in these hearings that they appear to be pretty if not outright opposed, they’re pretty skeptical and really fearful of this plan, you know, what a sea change like that could do to our budget and our state economy.

Adam Ganucheau: I want to really quickly read a quote from from Scott Waller who is the head of the Mississippi Economic Council, which is effectively the state’s chamber of commerce. He was one of the invited sort of folks to testify during these hearings, and I wasn’t able to watch this day of hearings live, but Geoff, when I was reading your story before we published it, it was just, I mean, it’s a strong quote here.

Kind of talking about the budget, generally speaking, and you know, all these other needs that we have, Scott Waller, who kind of represents some of the most powerful, successful business people in Mississippi, didn’t really mince words about Gunn’s plan. Here’s the quote, “Where is this in the priorities we have, “Waller said. “We’ve been on the road holding 39 meetings with members all across the state. I know you don’t want to hear this, Mr. Speaker, but this issue has not come up a single time as a priority, something we want to do.” For Scott Waller to say that in this hearing, that is not nothing. I mean, that is a direct sort of counter to the whole purpose of this moment for Gunn, at least from his perspective. Bobby, I’m hoping that you can explain to us why this is such a big deal.

I mean, you know, this proposal that Gunn has laid out and that the House passed earlier this year like Geoff just said it really would be a sea change in sort of how we collect taxes in Mississippi and how we can, you know, work budgets moving forward in the future. So just kind of give us a little bit of context about what this would mean and why this is an important debate right now. 

Bobby Harrison: Yeah, there’s a lot going on here.

First of all, we can’t miss in this whole debate that actually Governor Tate Reeves has his own plan, and his plan is just to eliminate, phase out the income tax. Essentially one third is state revenue that you talked about Adam, and his plan is not to raise any other taxes just to phase out the income tax.

So that’s going on and what both plans have in common is the elimination of the income tax. And in Mississippi, that’s a big deal for a number of reasons. First of all, we’re the poorest state in the nation. At the same time, our tax system is regressive, meaning that poor people pay more and a greater share of their income in taxes than do the more fluent people.

And the income tax is the one tax that we have in this state where more fluent people pay more than less wealthy people, and not a lot more, but a little bit more. And if we eliminate the income tax, it’s just going to put more of the tax burden on low and middle income people. I mean, there are studies that show that and plus it’s just common sense. You know, because essentially the speaker’s plan through the first several years actually produces more revenue than it takes away because you raise the sales tax and most excise and consumption taxes by 2.5%, so that’s gonna put more of the burden on the poor and the less fortunate. That was not talked about a lot during the hearings. Actually, state economist Corey Miller talked about it a little bit.

He said one of the tenants of a good tax system is tax fairness. And he said that the consumption taxes, sales taxes are regressive taxes and the income tax, generally, it’s not a regressive tax. But most of the folks that Geoff referenced, the conservative think tanks from out of state and and some business leaders from in-state too, most were against it, but there were some people who spoke in favor of it.

They expressed less concern about how it was gonna impact the poor and the middle-class, but they were more concerned that there’s going to be a two, two and a half cent increase on their taxes. So this is going to be a big deal if it goes through. I think it’s going to be difficult. I think that there’s going to be a lot of different proposals out there when everything is said and done, and I don’t know if they can get a three-fifths vote on it, which it takes to to pass a tax increase. We’ll have to see, but it’s going to be a big deal during the 2022 session, I think whether it passes in the House. 

Adam Ganucheau: Bobby, you’ve written about how, you know, talking about sort of the, the tax burden and how it would shift to, you know, people who aren’t as wealthy because they’d have to pay more of a percentage in sales taxes as they would income. You’ve written about how that disproportionately affects people of color in Mississippi as well. 

Bobby Harrison: That’s just common sense again, cause we have, you know, there’s poor Mississippians, black, white, and and different races and ethnicities.

But I mean, we have more poor black people than poor white people. I mean, at least percentage wise. So, I mean, it just makes sense it’s gonna impact those people more. And, I just, you know, I do fear that that’s not being talked about enough. And in fairness to the speaker, he did try to address it to a certain extent.

We have the highest state imposed sales tax on groceries in the nation, which is the, probably the most regressive of all taxes, you know, because you know, to be taxing food and stuff like milk and those types of items, and his proposal will cut that sales tax, which is 7% now in half over a period of years.

So, I mean give him a little credit for that. He made an effort, but studies still show that even after that sales tax on groceries goes into effect that it still is overall tax policy, if the speaker’s proposal passes, that puts more of a burden on the middle class and lower income Mississippians.

Adam Ganucheau: Another big group of Mississippians who’ve been talked about as it comes to this point as retirees. Retirees don’t currently pay income taxes. So the argument against this would be, they’re already kind of getting a break by not having to pay income taxes. So what you’re really doing, if Gunn’s plan were to pass, is you’re increasing retirees’ sales taxes without giving them another break anywhere else, so really their taxes would be going up.

That’s at least the argument that’s being made. In these hearings, it was made by a senior Republican Senator John Polk from Hattiesburg. His quote was, “My seniors who are retired they don’t pay income taxes, and they will pay a 36% increase in sales taxes. How do I get reelected, if I tell them I support this? So I’d be saying, here’s the bus you can get in front of me. I’m about to throw you under it.” Another very strong quote, sort of in direct opposition to Gunn’s plan here. Geoff, I’ll ask you this in closing, after sitting through these hearings and covering them and talking to folks during and after, what do you make of the speaker’s chances, the speaker’s plans, chances moving forward? I mean, post hearings, and as we’re looking ahead to the 2022 regular legislative session, what do you make of chances of this thing going anywhere? 

Geoff Pender: I think number one, I think his plan in toto, I don’t foresee that passing. There’s too much. We just rattled off numerous groups that are either skeptical or opposed to it. And I mean, keep in mind, manufacturers. They’ve got that fear of tax pyramiding, where they’re getting hit with sales tax when they go buy raw materials or commodities to make their widgets, then taxed again on equipment, then they have to pass on tax again when it sells.

So I mean, those are all pretty powerful groups, including retirees, and again, teamed up with advocates for the poor and the poorest state in the union. What I think is far more likely than Gunn’s total plan passing is an income tax cut.

Either they start taking a bite out of the 4% bracket. Right now we have a 4% and a 5%. We did away with the lowest in the process of it. But I think it’s far more light 

Bobby Harrison: It has not phased out yet.

Geoff Pender: I think it will be by next year. Far more likely they’re going to do an income tax cut. Now whether they do that in a phase out of the 4% or if it’s a one-time flat cut, I suspect there will be some talk of at least calling it a phase out. But as far as the swap, which Philip Gunn keeps saying, “Now don’t call it a tax swap,” but I just don’t see the full plan passing. I think it’s way more likely. Now there is appetite for an income tax cut or a tax cut given the state’s finances right now way above projections. I would almost guarantee we’ll see some, some sort of tax cut, but don’t see the plan.

Adam Ganucheau: Bobby. Do you agree? 

Bobby Harrison: Yeah. And I don’t think it’s a bad deal, a bad plan to do a study of the state’s tax system. I think that was, you know, that was actually a good thought. Now, you could argue that the people they brought in for that study, were kind of slanted one way.

All, most of them, were opposed to the income tax and supported the consumption and sales taxes, but there’s a lot of things. Look, you know, y’all been talking about retirees. Now, I mean, I would argue that, you know, that a retiree you making $100,000 a year, and they’re out there, you know, they might be in a better place to pay some income tax, some state income tax than somebody making $40,000 a year with two kids.

And so, I think those are some of the things that, you know, would be nice to look at. I mean, I’m not saying tax all retirees, but I mean, but there’s wealthy retirees out there, and I hope to be one of them one day. Probably won’t be, but there’s wealthy retirees out there that can afford to pay taxes more than a family of four earning $40- 50,000 a year and having to put a couple of kids through school and pay for college and all those things. So, I mean, I think there’s a lot of things like that they could look at, but—

Geoff Pender: I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that does not get looked at very closely. 

Bobby Harrison: Well the fact that it is not looked at doesn’t mean that we should not point it out that that might be an inequity in the tax system. And you know, there’s no greater inequity I think than the grocery tax. And so, you know, whether they will look at that or not, I don’t know. Mississippi loves its sales tax.

I mean, you know, we talked about the income tax being about a third of the state revenue, a little bit less than a third. You know, the sales tax and other consumption taxes, excise taxes and stuff, already makes up about 38% of the overall state revenue, so Mississippi is already heavily dependent on its sales tax.

And, you know, maybe we should look at some areas there. Will we? Geoff’s right, probably not, but I think part of our job is to just point out different options out there and see what legislators do about them.

Adam Ganucheau: Sure. Well, y’all both have been all over this, and it’s certainly helpful to hear your perspectives on it. Geoff, your analysis like I said, if anybody wants to go read, that headline, like I said, is: “Who will lawmakers listen to on taxes Grover Norquist or Mississippi business leaders?” That posted on August 31st of this year. If you have listened to this episode, and you’re still wanting to hear more about all this, I’d encourage you to scroll back in our podcast list. I think it’s about 24, 25 episodes ago published on February 28th of this year. I sat down with Speaker Gunn and asked him all about his plan and what he wants to do. So if you want to hear more about that, you can. And I mean, Geoff, Bobby y’all will continue covering this closely and looking forward to it and thank you all so much for everything.

Bobby Harrison: Thanks guys. 

Geoff Pender: Thanks.

Adam Ganucheau: As we cover the biggest political stories in this state, you don’t want to miss an episode of The Other Side. We’ll bring you more reporting from every corner of the state, sharing the voices of Mississippians and how they’re impacted by the news. So, what do we need from you, the listener? We need your feedback and support.

If you listen to the podcast on a player like iTunes or Stitcher, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review. We also have an email in which you can share your feedback. That address is Podcast@MississippiToday.org. Y’all can also reach out to me or any of my colleagues through social media or email. And as always thank you for your feedback and support.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast on your favorite podcast app or stream episodes online at MississippiToday.org/the-other-side. For the Mississippi Today team, I’m Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side is produced by Mississippi Today and engineered by Blue Sky Studios. We hope you’ll join us for our next episode.

The post Podcast: Will Mississippi lawmakers eliminate the income tax and raise others? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

On this week’s episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-At-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with Dr. Michael Montesi and Rhonda Meadows from the Recovery after COVID Clinic at Methodist Rehabilitation to talk about recovering from Long COVID.

Dr. Montesi, who suffered a severe case of COVID last year, was placed on a ventilator for 27 days. When he awoke, he found that he was initially paralyzed. His recovery now provides inspiration for his patients who are also on that same path. Montesi is a graduate of Delta State University and the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. He did his residency in Family Medicine at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center in South Carolina. He is currently a physician for Cleveland Medical Clinic and the Recovery after COVID Clinic at Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson.

Meadows, as the head of the clinic, talks about the different ways the Recovery after COVID Clinic can help patients shake Long COVID and live their best life. Meadows earned a master of science degree in nursing/family nurse practitioner from the University of Mississippi School of Nursing. Prior to coming to Methodist Rehabilitation Center, she was a nurse practitioner specializing in cardiac care at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

The post Mississippi Stories: Dr. Michael Montesi and Rhonda Meadows appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A few years ago, many in the state argued that the enactment of Common Core national education standards would result in the ruin of Mississippi’s public education system.

Now, some of the same people are making similar arguments about critical race theory. Both Gov. Tate Reeves and House Speaker Philip Gunn, whom many believe will challenge the incumbent governor in the 2023 Republican primary, used a considerable amount of their time at the Neshoba County Fair political speeches in late July pledging to pass legislation during the 2022 session preventing the teaching of critical race theory.

Reeves called critical race theory “the latest, dumbest idea.”

The exact definition of critical race theory varies, perhaps depending on a person’s political views. Essentially, it is the teaching that systematic racism exists in the country, which makes it more difficult for people of color to succeed. While some might argue about whether critical race theory is good or bad, there has been no report of it being taught in Mississippi public schools. That didn’t stop Reeves and Gunn from spending more time talking about it at the Neshoba County Fair than addressing COVID-19, which was surging in the state.

Before critical race theory, there was another evil that was going to pollute Mississippi schools: Common Core.

Late in 2014, then-Lt. Gov. Reeves made big news at a meeting of the Mississippi State University Stennis Institute of Government by announcing he would work during that next legislative session to keep the state from adopting the Common Core national standards.

“We cannot accept this heavy-handedness from Washington telling us how best to teach our children,” Reeves said of Common Core, which was developed by the nation’s governors but later embraced by the administration of President Barack Obama.

Reeves had, to that point, been mostly silent on Common Core even though the Department of Education already had spent millions of dollars developing the national academic standards, which were relabeled by the state Board of Education as Mississippi College- and Career- Readiness Standards.

But as conservatives in the state and nation began to criticize the national standards, Reeves decided he needed to enter the fray and voice his opposition to Common Core. His efforts were unsuccessful.

But years later, seldom is a word heard about the evils Common Core has inflicted on Mississippi schools.

On the other hand, Reeves often touts the strong performances of Mississippi schoolchildren on tests that are part of the national standards that were the premise behind Common Core.

It might be important to point out that the state Board of Education contends it did not adopt Common Core, but Mississippi specific standards. But many, including former Gov. Phil Bryant, contended at the time they were essentially one and the same. And to that point, as late as 2018, state Sens. Angela Burks Hill and Michael Watson, now the secretary of state, filed legislation to try to force the state board to replace the Mississippi College- and Career- Readiness Standards, which they contended were nothing more than Common Core. That bill died in the legislative process.

Reeves’ efforts to block Common Core during the 2015 session resulted in legislation that would establish a commission to make recommendations to the state Board of Education about new standards and would require those standards to not to be called Common Core. But by that time, the board already had adopted the alternative name for the standards.

Bryant vetoed the legislation, saying, “I am steadfast in my belief that Common Core must be abandoned, and SB2161 would do nothing to realistically accomplish that.”

Reeves countered, “Gov. Bryant’s veto of a bill that 93 legislative Republicans supported ensures that Common Core will remain in Mississippi schools.”

Yet those schools seem no worse for the wear from Common Core, and many of those same Republicans often tout recent achievements in Mississippi schools.

On his official web page, Reeves boasts: “In 2019, Mississippi students led the nation in educational gains in reading and math. We have significantly improved testing scores while the rest of the nation has remained stagnant. Graduation rates have risen dramatically in Mississippi, surpassing all experts’ expectations. Education groups all across the country are looking to Mississippi and asking themselves how they can replicate the success happening in the Hospitality State.”

OK, Common Core is not ruining the public schools. But, no doubt, critical race theory will…

“Socialists seek to turn Americans against each other and against this country by introducing critical race theory in our schools,” Gunn said at the Fair. “We cannot allow our schools to teach that one race is better than another. Those days are behind us.”

But the days of finding the latest bogeyman inside Mississippi schools may not be gone.

The post First, it was Common Core. Now, critical race theory is the ‘biggest threat’ to Mississippi schools. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Curtis Flowers, a Black man from Winona who had been tried for murder in six different trials and spent 23 years in prison before the charges were dropped, filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the district attorney who prosecuted him.

Flowers sued Mississippi District Attorney Doug Evans in federal court for a variety of alleged misconducts by Evans and three investigators, including pressuring witnesses to implicate Flowers and ignoring other more likely suspects.

In his most recent trial, Flowers was convicted for the 1996 killings of four people and sentenced to death. His lawyers appealed the conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2019 that Evans, the district attorney, unconstitutionally kept Black people from serving on the jury.

Over Flowers’ six trials, 61 of the 72 jurors were white.

“Curtis Flowers never should have been charged,” said Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice, the Mississippi-based law firm that represented Flowers for years. “The murders were clearly the work of professional criminals. Curtis Flowers was 26 years old with no criminal record and nothing in his history to suggest he would commit a crime like this. The prosecution was tainted throughout by racial discrimination and repeated misconduct. This lawsuit seeks accountability for that misconduct.” 

READ MORE: ‘I am finally free’: Curtis Flowers’ murder charges dropped after six trials

The story of Flowers, whose murder charges were finally dropped in September 2020, earned national attention after it was featured on the popular podcast “In the Dark.” This federal lawsuit was already garnering national headlines on Friday.

“Too many of the innocent people wrongly imprisoned in this country were victims of misconduct by prosecutors and law enforcement officers,” said Vangela M. Wade, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice. “Most are not held accountable. While Curtis Flowers was trapped behind bars for nearly a quarter century, Doug Evans has faced virtually no consequences for his crusade to convict this innocent man and for his discriminatory manipulation of the legal system. We are pursuing this lawsuit to bring some level of accountability.”

Editor’s note: Vangela M. Wade is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.

The post Curtis Flowers files federal lawsuit against Mississippi DA Doug Evans for misconduct in wrongful prosecution appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Parker Briden, a Missouri native who came to Mississippi in 2019 to work on Tate Reeves’ successful gubernatorial campaign and stayed on as a senior staffer for several months after Reeves was sworn into office, has been tapped by Reeves to be his next chief of staff.

Briden, 27, will assume the pivotal position as Reeves’ gubernatorial staff appears to be in a state of flux. In recent months, there has been substantial upheaval in Reeves’ staff, including former chief of staff Brad White leaving to become the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Since Reeves took office in January 2020, at least four senior staffers and at least five junior policy staffers have departed.

When White left in June, the governor announced that Liz Welch, the executive director of the Department of Finance and Administration and a longtime Reeves adviser, would take on the added responsibility of interim chief of staff.

Briden had previously served as deputy chief of staff for external affairs on Reeves’ gubernatorial staff before leaving to work as a political consultant to Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio.

“Parker has been a trusted partner throughout my time as governor,” Reeves said in a press release. “He will be a highly effective leader and adviser as we work to serve the people of Mississippi.”

In the news release, Briden said, “I am honored and excited to work for the people of Mississippi and Gov. Tate Reeves again. My aspiration is to bring a fraction of the ability and integrity of my predecessors and colleagues to the job. The top responsibility is to be an honest broker for the governor and every partner throughout state government, the Legislature and private enterprise as we work together to serve this great state.”

Reeves credited Briden for being a key adviser on such issues as COVID-19 and other emergencies during his tenure.

Briden, a graduate of the University of Missouri, worked in multiple states on political campaigns and was the communications director for former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in 2018 amid multiple scandals.

During the 2019 gubernatorial campaign, Briden was Reeves’ primary spokesperson.

The post Gov. Reeves brings former senior staffer back to Mississippi as chief of staff appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A group of DeSoto County School District parents who are also physicians say their district — the largest in Mississippi — has ignored their advice on COVID-19 policies and has not been transparent or inclusive in setting its protocols, which include no mask requirement for students and teachers.

These doctors mostly work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. The hospital treats children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases — the very conditions that make them more susceptible to severe illness and outcomes from COVID-19. 

As parents, they say they are seeing the effects of the district’s choices in their own homes.

Dr. Jessica Gartrell spoke with Mississippi Today while her kindergartener and third grader were home sick with COVID-19. 

“My 5-year-old is very sick. He has high fever, he’s shaking like crazy, curled up in the fetal position — he’s miserable,” said Gartrell, a board certified pediatrician and pediatric hematologist/oncologist.

As a doctor, she knows the risk for severe outcomes if a child contracts COVID-19: hospitalization, pneumonia, and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C), a serious and sometimes fatal condition in children that usually occurs four to six weeks after COVID infection.

But DeSoto County remains one of only 16 districts in the state that does not currently require masks in school buildings.

The district said in an emailed statement to Mississippi Today that it considered advice from medical professionals in developing its protocols for the school year and received inconsistent medical guidance and “different viewpoints.”

But when asked which medical professionals provided guidance that differs from recommendations by the Mississippi State Department of Health and other major medical groups in the state, district officials wouldn’t name them. Superintendent Cory Uselton referred the question to school board attorney Jim Keith. 

Keith said the district took into consideration input from community members via its dedicated COVID-19 email address. Some of that input was from doctors and other health care professionals in the community, he said. 

“(Some of those doctors) don’t want to be on the forefront, they just simply provided their input and said, ‘School district, you make the decision,’” Keith said. 

This year, Gov. Tate Reeves did not issue a mask mandate in schools as he did last year. This meant the decision, which has become a contentious political hot potato, was tossed into the laps of superintendents and school board members.

Gartrell, along with fellow parents and St. Jude physicians Drs. Matthew Rees and Michael McNeil, also want to know who these medical professionals are. 

“The pediatrics community in northern Mississippi has a unified voice on this (masking). This is what works: wearing masks when you can’t be socially distanced and getting vaccinated if you’re able,” said McNeil, a pediatrician and pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at St. Jude. “The district keeps saying, ‘There are a lot of opinions on both sides,’ but what we are recommending is based on evidence. That is not opinion.”

Dr. Desh Sidhu, a pediatrician and a board member of the state’s pediatrician association, has been practicing in the DeSoto County area for more than 40 years. He says he has tried repeatedly to talk to the superintendent and other district officials to no avail. 

He even offered to provide vaccinations for eligible students in the schools. 

“All the district would need to do is get permission from the parents and we will take care of everything else — the logistics, the paperwork, the staff, everything,” Sidhu said. “But we have just met a dead end.”

The district said it has held no vaccination drives or events to date. 

As a mother, Gartrell is heartbroken by the position she finds herself in. In an effort to keep her 3-year-old daughter and herself safe, she can’t care for her ill 5-year-old the way she wants.

“I want to hold him and take care of him and love on him. Instead I’m going in with a mask, a face shield and keeping my distance,” she said. “And I’m scared.” 

She said while she believes teachers and nurses are doing their best, their hands are tied by district policy. When her older son started running fever at school and complaining of a sore throat, he was sent back to class after a second thermometer showed he didn’t have fever — despite earlier high temperature readings, Gartrell said.

While her son wears a mask in school per her and her husband’s wishes, he went out to recess unmasked and played football with other children. By the time he was standing in the car rider line, his temperature had spiked to nearly 103 degrees, his mom said.

Despite a positive result from an at-home test, Gartrell said, she was told they could only accept a result from an in-office test, which she wasn’t able to get until days later amid a nationwide shortage of rapid tests and a spike in testing throughout the state.

“I was told they were not allowed to accept an at-home test and urged me that as soon as I could get the in-office test to notify them immediately as he had potentially exposed other children,” she said. 

Keith, the school board attorney, said he advised the district not to accept results from any at-home tests because the school does not know the fidelity with which the test was administered or the accuracy of the test used.  

Gartrell and several other pediatricians who spoke to Mississippi Today said this policy needs to be reconsidered as potentially exposed children are not being quarantined in real time.

“While a negative result on a home test does not rule out a COVID infection, they are very reliable when they show a positive result. Especially with the shortage of rapid tests, this policy should be revisited,” she said. 

Gartrell is one of several doctors in the area who have been reaching out to the school district and school board members for more than a month. The district set up a COVID-specific email address to receive feedback from parents, so Gartrell and others began directing their questions and concerns there before the school year began. 

Rees, a pediatric hematology/oncology fellow at St. Jude, is a parent of four children, three of which attend schools in the district. He also spoke to Mississippi Today after his daughter tested positive for the virus which then spread to his other daughter, his wife and him.

While the children have fared well, Rees, who has type 1 diabetes, was riddled by body aches, sore throat, congestion and a cough for five days and unable to do much in the way of work or caretaking. His wife recently had to take a trip to the emergency room after experiencing chest pain, and despite improvement after two weeks, she is still not back to “full speed,” he said.

“One common thing people say is, ‘Kids don’t get COVID and don’t spread it,’ but I would beg to differ,” he said.

Rees said he started reaching out via the district’s COVID email address and through one of his children’s principals in July when it became apparent there would be no statewide mask mandate or requirements in schools. He even offered to help create the district’s COVID-19 response plan and coordinate a question and answer session with parents.

He received a boilerplate response telling him his feedback was received and the district would be releasing its back-to-school plan soon. 

When he saw the plan, he was shocked.

“The only thing it said about masking was one paragraph hidden in the middle of it, which started out with, ‘There will be no mask mandate,’” he said. It did not mention vaccinations other than detailing when unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals must be tested and quarantined, per state health department guidelines.

It continued to list protocols such as cleaning procedures, social distancing and the replacement of water fountains with bottled water stations. 

“I wrote back and said it baffles me that the best interventions we possibly have barely even get mentioned … while we’re at the same time making plans, investing resources in replacing water fountains,” Rees said. “Why not also use the things that are going to have a much bigger impact?” 

Officials with the DeSoto County School District said the new plan was created by Assistant Superintendent Lucy Hasselman. 

“Feedback from the COVID-19 email address was considered, and the document was reviewed by school administrators and members of the Central Services staff before it was recommended to the school board,” the district said in an email.

Hernando High School and Lewisburg Middle School are currently operating entirely virtually due to COVID-19 infections and quarantine numbers. Lewisburg, which transitioned to virtual learning on Thursday of last week, had 53 students test positive for the virus last week. Nearly 300 were quarantined, Mississippi State Department of Health data shows. 

The high school transitioned to virtual learning on Aug. 17 before transitioning to a mixture of in-person and virtual learning on Aug. 25. Eighty-six students at the high school have tested positive for COVID-19 since school began on Aug. 5.

McNeil is also a pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at St. Jude and the father of three kids, two of which are in the district. When he has attempted to talk to district officials, he’s been met with “radio silence.”

He says he’s operating with a daily sense of dread, knowing that it’s “only a matter of time” before his children get the virus.

“My fourth grader and kindergartener are one of the few kids in their classes with masks on,” he said. 

He says the experience of trying to work with the district has been frustrating on many levels. 

“If you want to ignore my medical training and my experience and the evidence, that’s one thing,” said McNeil. “But when you ignore me as a parent, that’s a whole other thing.”

The post Pediatrician parents say Mississippi’s largest school district is ignoring their COVID advice appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Read Geoff Pender’s analysis of this story, too.

The post Marshall Ramsey: The Observer appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today is pleased to announce that journalist Julia James has joined the newsroom as a poverty and breaking news reporter.

James, a native of Mandeville, Louisiana, recently completed an investigative reporting internship with Mississippi Today. In that role, she closely covered the sprawling welfare scandal and public education. She will continue that work, as well as working closely with Mississippi Today’s breaking news team.

James is a 2021 graduate of the University of Mississippi, where she studied journalism and public policy and was in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. She has been published in The New York Times, Mississippi Today, and Clarion Ledger.

“When I moved to attend college, I was searching for a Mississippi newspaper that I could depend on. I quickly got the sense from people I trusted, they trusted Mississippi Today,” James said. “Being able to join the newsroom as an intern and learn from the reporters I admired has been such an invaluable experience, one that I’m excited to continue as a full-time reporter.”

James interned with the Mississippi Center for Justice in 2020 and the Prison-to-College Pipeline Program (PTCPP) from 2018-2019. While working with the PTCPP, she interviewed more than 30 students about their experiences in the program and created a website and newsletter for the student’s writing projects.

“From the second she stepped in our newsroom, Julia made it clear to all of us that she was eager and able to dive into some of the state’s most pressing problems and hold public officials accountable for them,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today’s Editor-in-Chief. “In Mississippi, the poorest state in America, diving into policies around poverty, in particular, couldn’t be more critical. Julia is just the right person to serve Mississippians in this way.”

James will continue working closely with Mississippi Today investigative reporter Anna Wolfe.

The post Julia James joins Mississippi Today newsroom appeared first on Mississippi Today.