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The Mississippi Supreme Court will be the tiebreaker in a dispute between members of the Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves on whether the governor’s partial veto of a bill providing funds to health care providers to combat COVID-19 was constitutional.

Before breaking that all-important tie, it might behoove the Supreme Court justices to gather all the facts — facts they did not seem to have during last week’s oral arguments.

Mississippi’s 1890 Constitution gives the governor partial veto authority, but court rulings through the years have dramatically limited that authority. When Reeves partially vetoed the bill providing funds to health care providers, his fellow Republicans, House Speaker Philip Gunn and House Pro Tem Jason White, filed a lawsuit alleging the governor exceeded his authority. A lower court in Hinds County agreed with the House leaders. Reeves appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.

While the issues surrounding the extent of the governor’s partial veto authority could be viewed as tedious or ho-hum, the case could be critical. If Reeves prevails, it could potentially increase the governor’s influence in the budgeting process.

Three cases decided by the Supreme Court — one in the 1890s, then in the 1990s and finally in the 2000s — are cited as defining that partial veto authority. They were discussed many times during oral arguments, but some of the justices had a surprising lack of knowledge about the cases even as they cited them to make their points. Most likely by the time they rule, their knowledge of the cases will be stronger, but in some noticeable instances, that was not the case during oral arguments last week.

For instance, Justices Josiah Coleman and James Maxwell both said that a key issue is that in the previous cases, the partial vetoes were issued after the Legislature adjourned for the year so legislators did not have an option to try to override them. Reeves’ partial veto in question occurred while legislators were in session, so they had the opportunity to override it without turning to the courts, Coleman and Maxwell said during oral arguments. By not trying to override, legislators waived their ability to file a lawsuit.

“This situation here is different… by the fact that the legislative session had not adjourned sine die at the time the governor executed his partial veto,” Maxwell said. “You see in those other three cases, the legislative session had adjourned. The governor had after the fact executed his veto, and the Legislature could not take this constitutional action (to override the veto).”

“That is a pretty serious distinction,” Maxwell said.

Andy Taggart, the attorney representing Gunn and White, pointed out that even if a veto is issued after the session ends, the Legislature has the option to override when the new session begins the following year.

But what Taggart did not point out is that Maxwell, and later Coleman, misstated facts. In one of the three pivotal cases, then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove issued a partial veto of the budget bill for the Department of Corrections in an attempt to block funding to private prisons.

When Musgrove issued the veto, the Legislature was in session just as it was when Reeves filed his partial veto this year. In 2002, legislators got an official opinion from then-Attorney General Mike Moore saying the veto was void because it was unconstitutional.

Legislators never addressed the Musgrove veto because they said it was void, just as current members did not take up the Reeves veto. On the legislative website, it shows the 2002 partial veto was “void, per AG’s opinion.”

Later, a private prison company filed a lawsuit against Musgrove. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the company years after Musgrove had left office.

Chief Justice Michael Randolph also misstated some facts. He said in the three cases, parties that would be impacted by the partial vetoes filed the lawsuit, such as the private prisons. But in the 1990s, when Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice partially vetoed 27 appropriations bills, it was solely legislators, including current Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, who filed the lawsuit, not the entities impacted by the veto.

In addition, Randolph claimed the bills Fordice partially vetoed were bills authorizing the sale of bonds to raise money for the state to pay for projects. Two were bond or revenue bills, while 27 were appropriations bills. This is important because the state Constitution does not give the governor partial veto authority of bond bills.

As stated, the Constitution does give the governor partial veto of the appropriations bills, though based on more than 120 years of court rulings, that authority is limited.

Perhaps the current court will expand that authority. It surely has that right. But it should do so based on the facts.

The post Supreme Court justices lacking some facts during oral arguments on governor’s partial veto appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Nancy New, scheduled to stand trial on April 5, told reporters she was directed to make payments to the founder of the drug company Prevacus. (Sarah Warnock/The Clarion-Ledger via AP)

Editor’s note: This investigation is the result of a collaboration between Mississippi Today and the Clarion Ledger. Anna Wolfe reported for Mississippi Today, and Giacomo Bologna reported for the Clarion Ledger.

Reporting by Mississippi Today and the Clarion Ledger raises questions about who knew that Mississippi welfare money was allegedly funneled to a biomedical startup company, who incited the deal and who stood to benefit.

When the state auditor held a press conference in February about an investigation into welfare embezzlement, only two people — Nancy New and her son Zach — were indicted for funneling $2 million to a Florida-based concussion drug company.

Now, Nancy New is saying someone else was behind the arrangement.

This story is the latest in an investigative series by Mississippi Today and the Clarion Ledger into a sprawling welfare scandal in which authorities say state officials and contractors illegally or questionably spent millions of dollars meant for poor Mississippians, ensnaring six people with criminal indictments.

Nancy New ran a private organization funded largely by block grants from the state’s welfare agency. Prosecutors say the nonprofit founder and her son committed a crime when they sent more than $2 million to Prevacus and PreSolMD, related companies that state leaders were trying to lure to Mississippi. She and her son Zach New pleaded not guilty.

Nancy New has not spoken publicly since she was indicted in February until reporters from Mississippi Today and Clarion Ledger approached her at her north Jackson home Friday, Nov. 6.

Nancy New, who is scheduled to stand trial on April 5, spoke with reporters for about 40 minutes. She declined to answer most questions. But when asked if she was directed to make payments to the founder of the startup, New responded, “absolutely.”

Nancy New repeatedly acknowledged that someone told her to direct the money for the development of concussion treatment therapies. She would not say who allegedly gave her that directive — or in what form it came.

When pressed on her relationship to the man behind Prevacus and PreSolMD, Florida neuroscientist Jake Vanlandingham, Nancy New responded, “Let me say this, I didn’t know the man.”

Vanlandingham had multiple meetings in Mississippi before Nancy New and her son allegedly sent him welfare money. Mississippi Today and the Clarion Ledger reached out to people who met with or were scheduled to meet with Vanlandingham, including former Gov. Phil Bryant, retired quarterback Brett Favre, the state’s top welfare officer John Davis, and former pro wrestler Teddy DiBiase Jr.

Bryant, Davis and DiBiase told reporters this week they did not instruct Nancy New to give money to Vanlandingham or his companies. Favre and his agent Bus Cook, both of whom are Prevacus investors, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bryant, Favre and DiBiase have not been charged with any crime related to the welfare scandal. A grand jury indicted Davis on embezzlement charges — separate from the Prevacus payments — after DiBiase’s brother Brett allegedly used welfare money to pay for luxury drug rehab in Malibu. Davis has pleaded not guilty.

Emails show Davis was organizing meetings between Vanlandingham and Nancy New, including one he said Bryant and Favre requested, which was supposed to take place at Nancy New’s office in January of 2019, according to an email calendar Mississippi Today first reported in March.

But DiBiase, who worked closely with Davis, shed light on a separate meeting that took place at Favre’s home in either December 2018 or January 2019 — a meeting never previously published.

It was a pitch meeting, DiBiase said, according to his attorney, Scott Gilbert.

Gilbert said his client recalled meeting with six other people at Favre’s home in south Mississippi: Favre and Cook, Davis, Nancy New, Vanlandingham and a business associate of Vanlandingham.

“It was clear to Teddy (DiBiase) during this meeting that the Prevacus folks were pitching John Davis for state money as funding,” Gilbert said in a written statement. “This wasn’t an open forum where they were pitching to a bunch of potential investors. Had John Davis as executive director of DHS not attended, Teddy doesn’t think there would have been a meeting at all.”

At or around the time of the meeting, Prevacus created an investment pitch document that said the company expected to get $1.95 million from DHS.

This document — newly obtained by the Clarion Ledger and Mississippi Today — makes no mention of Nancy New or the nonprofit she ran at the time, the Mississippi Community Education Center.

In an interview this week, Vanlandingham said he inked a deal with the Mississippi Community Education Center and that he assumed the funds came at least in part from the Mississippi Department of Human Services, considering Davis’ involvement in meetings up to that point. Vanlandingham said the money was supposed to help his company prepare clinical trials of a nasal spray designed to reduce swelling caused by head injuries.

In his mind, Vanlandingham said, the nonprofit and Mississippi state government were essentially synonymous, and Davis, the state official, appeared to be Nancy New’s boss. 

That’s why he continued to list the state welfare agency as a possible future funding source in an additional pitch that Clarion Ledger first reported in April.

But in the May audit report, the state auditor said that the agreement with Prevacus was actually entered into by Nancy and Zach New in their individual capacities — a key distinction that bolsters the auditor’s allegation that the News actually stole the funds. 

Vanlandingham would not share the contract, and the auditor’s office maintains it is confidential as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. 

The scientist said when he discussed Prevacus with Bryant, conversations centered around how the state could partner with the company to relocate and manufacture its concussion drug at Tradition, a new medical complex on the Gulf Coast. The company organized a dinner with Bryant in December 2018, a month before the allegedly illegal payments began flowing to Prevacus.

Bryant previously said recruiting health care companies such as Prevacus was a key part of his administration’s economic development strategy. He has called Prevacus “a good prospect,” but has repeatedly emphasized he never instructed anyone to give welfare money to the company.

“In order to provide total clarity to ongoing and future media reports, as governor of the State of Mississippi neither I, nor any member of my immediate staff, directed, instructed or ordered the spending of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding through the Department of Human Services,” Bryant said in a written statement this week.

Bryant appointed Davis to head the Human Services agency in 2016. It was under Davis’ tenure that the agency misspent tens of millions of welfare dollars, according to this year’s annual state audit. At times, the director allegedly had unilateral control of awarding federal grants that flowed through his agency. 

While the state audit questions $94 million in agency spending — such as on luxury vehicles, lobbying for other private companies and celebrity contracts for services that were never performed — only a fraction of this questioned spending has resulted in criminal charges. 

The alleged payments of $2.15 million in welfare dollars to concussion research firm Prevacus and its affiliate PreSolMD represent the largest alleged theft in the indictments, payments that continued through October 2019, after Davis left office.

Because the state has such wide latitude to spend federal welfare grants how it wants, many seemingly inappropriate purchases may not be illegal.

New told Mississippi Today and Clarion Ledger she’s been advised not to speak publicly or release new information about the case until the Mississippi Department of Human Services has completed a forensic audit of the agency and nonprofit’s spending during Davis’ administration. 

New leadership at DHS recently ordered a forensic audit of spending under Davis, which will produce a more detailed accounting of agency misspending and is expected to be completed in May.

New said she believes the forensic audit will significantly contradict the narrative of the 104-page state audit.

“I just have to say that I think there’s a lot more information to come and we’re just waiting our turn,” New said.

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READ: With Mississippi hospitals under ‘extreme stress,’ Gov. Tate Reeves rejects idea of lockdown

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Mississippi has the most COVID-19 cases per capita among nursing home residents in the U.S. As cases surge across the state, nearing peak levels seen over the summer, outbreaks in long-term care facilities have increased by nearly 25% over the last week alone. 

Currently, 140 facilities have outbreaks — defined as a single case among residents and two or more cases among staff over the last two weeks — up from 113 a week ago, comprising 147 more cases and 22 deaths in one week’s time. With only 211 facilities in the state, over two-thirds currently have active cases.

Nationally, Mississippi has the most cumulative cases per 1,000 residents since the pandemic began, at 407 per capita, according to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that regulates nursing homes. Other southern states follow closely: Alabama (404), Arkansas (395) and South Carolina (392). 

Too, Mississippi has the fifth highest death rate among nursing homes, with 83 residents dying from COVID-19 out of every 1,000. New Jersey has the most at 120 deaths per capita. 

Overall, almost half of all long-term care residents have contracted the coronavirus — 7,131 cases out of just over 16,000 total residents — and 20% of those who contract the virus in a nursing home die.

In September, the Mississippi State Department of Health stopped reporting nursing home outbreaks by facility and began relying on Medicare data to track nursing home outbreaks. In June, the state health department began listing facility names after a court order.

The state cited duplicate reporting as the reason for the switch to relying on Medicare facility data, but still tracks active and cumulative outbreaks by county. 

But some nursing homes aren’t reliably submitting their data to Medicare. 

As of Thursday’s nationwide reporting, 10 Mississippi nursing homes didn’t submit data at all. Of the 194 who did submit data, Medicare flagged nine as not passing “quality assurance,” meaning their data could be unreliable due to incorrect reporting. 

Including those who don’t report or do so incorrectly, nearly 10% of Mississippi’s nursing home COVID-19 data is unreliable, so the true rate of cases among residents is unknown. 

Two 60-bed facilities in the Pine Belt — which saw early broad community spread, but has flattened virus spread over time — have seen the highest rate of nursing home cases in the state. Due to a high rate of deaths, both facilities have had more cases than they currently have residents — both currently have 39 residents.

Laurelwood Community Living Center has seen the most cases per capita across the pandemic, at 1,846 cases per 1,000 residents, or an 185% infection rate. The proportion of cases is larger than 100% because more people have contracted the virus and died from it than the total number of current residents. 

Of those who contract the virus in the Laurel facility, 40% have died. In total 72 residents and 17 staff members have tested positive for the virus, and 38 have died.

Leakesville Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Greene County has had 59 total cases among residents and 39 staff cases, comprising 1,512 cases for every 1,000 residents and a death rate of 29%. Both the Greene and Jones County facilities report conducting asymptomatic tests for staff and residents as a way of checking facility-wide exposure, which could inflate numbers by catching more asymptomatic cases. 

The facilities are two of 12 in Mississippi that have had a cumulative infection rate of more than 100%, meaning their case total is more than their current resident census due to residents leaving the facility or dying. 

Neither facility reported new cases to Medicare since November. The Laurel facility said through a spokesperson that the nursing home is currently “COVID free” and provided the following statement: “Taking care of people in their time of need is what we do. Since the very beginning of COVID this is what we have planned for and are meeting the challenge. Once a COVID “outbreak” occurs we put in controlled checkpoints for all employee shifts and visitors are maintained. Then we have isolation areas for the patient along with any additional cases that may ensue. Team member (sic) that are positive are sent home to quarantine and follow the CDC guidelines. Our team has a COVID plan in working closely with our suppliers and state and local agencies to maintain sufficient PPE, supplies, and equipment.”

The Leaksville facility did not respond to request for comment. 

Of the ten Mississippi facilities with the most cases per capita, seven are for-profit owned and all have been cited for deficiencies by Medicare — eight for improper infection control before the pandemic began, according to nursing home inspection data. For-profit nursing homes have had twice as many COVID-19 cases and three times the deaths compared to government or non-profit facilities, according to analysis by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting.

Many Mississippi nursing homes report resource shortages, but notably not when it comes to testing. Just five nursing homes reported being unable to adequately test residents. Even so, fewer than a quarter of facilities reported testing all staff and residents after a new case, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending such testing.

Just 80 facilities, a little over a third, test residents without exposure, known as surveillance testing — widely regarded as the most effective way to judge actual case burden and isolate spread. In May, the state health department tested all nursing home staff and residents, successfully thwarting off worsening spread among facilities at the time.

Afterward though, many facilities started to open back up as outbreaks remained relatively stable over early summer. But as community spread worsened over the summer, nursing home cases followed suit. By late July when the state saw it’s daily case peak, 95% of the state’s facilities had concurrent outbreaks. 

Despite the growing cases and efficacy of surveillance testing, only two-thirds of facilities test asymptomatic staff for surveillance of disease spread. 

A quarter of nursing homes reported shortages in nurses and 10% don’t have a week’s worth of N-95 masks, the gold standard for medical use. Both shortages point to long-standing resource strains that hamper nursing home’s ability to fight the virus in their facilities. 

More than half of nursing homes across the nation are currently losing money, according to the American Health Care Association. The national lobbying group for nursing homes has ebbed and flowed in their messaging on the issue, changing their tone from stark cries for help early on to over the summer focusing on steps to safely re-open facilities to visitors over the summer.

Now, the group says widespread community spread — particular across the South and Midwest — is driving nursing homes into a third wave of infections. Nursing homes are asking to be among first-priority for COVID-19 vaccinations when they’re available — something Mississippi says it will accommodate, after front-line healthcare workers. CVS and Walgreens will partner with facilities for distribution, but further details have not yet been released.

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Rep. Steven Palazzo makes his way to a bipartisan Homeland Security Appropriations Conference Committee in the Capitol on Wednesday, January 30, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo’s campaign spending, after a watchdog group in March filed a complaint questioning whether he was using campaign contributions as a “personal slush fund.”

The Campaign Legal Center in late March requested OCE investigate whether Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his erstwhile spouse nearly $200,000.

A Palazzo campaign spokesman on Friday said that Palazzo’s campaign has supplied documents and “cooperated fully” with OCE inquiries, and that the campaign’s spending has been aboveboard. He said Palazzo expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing and the allegations are politically motivated. The Sun Herald first reported confirmation of the investigation on Friday.

Federal law and U.S. House rules prohibit conversion of campaign money to personal use. Violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act can carry felony criminal penalties. The OCE investigates such complaints and can recommend they be dismissed, handed off to the House Ethics Committee for further review or discipline of the representative, or refer them to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation.

The CLC’s complaint said Palazzo’s campaign committee paid a total of $60,000, in monthly payments of $3,000, for rent at a property called Greene Acres MS that Palazzo owns in Perkinston.

The complaint said, “there was no bona fide campaign purpose for renting Representative Palazzo’s farm for more than a year.” It said the campaign’s official address was in Gulfport and that Greene Acres “would be an unusual choice” for a campaign office, given that it is “in an extraordinarily rural part of Mississippi.”

While campaigns can and often do rent space owned by a candidate, it must be at fair market value and used for legitimate campaign purposes. The CLC complaint said the $3,000 a month rent was unusually high, and there is a “lack of any publicly available information about the campaign using the farm as an office.”

The complaint also questioned Palazzo’s campaign paying nearly $128,000 to his now former wife’s accounting firm, while it paid another accounting firm “for apparently the same services,” and that his spending on accounting services is far more than other similar campaigns.

Palazzo transferred ownership of his accounting firm to his wife when he joined Congress in 2011 because of House rules limiting outside income, the CLC complaint said. Palazzo and his wife divorced in 2016, but she still owns the firm.

Palazzo campaign spokesman Justin Brasell on Friday said, “Congressman Palazzo’s primary opponents teamed up with a George Soros-funded organization in Washington, D.C., and generated this complaint that’s full of false allegations.”

Brasell said Palazzo’s campaign rented a house from Greene Acres that was used as a campaign office for Palazzo’s reelection campaign and “people worked there.”

Brasell said that the Palazzo firm handled all the campaign’s day-to-day accounting — paying bills, keeping a ledger, etc. — while the other firm handled FEC compliance and reporting.

Kedric Payne, general counsel and director of ethics for the Campaign Legal Center, said: “The big picture is that this diminishes the public’s trust when a congressman uses campaign money for a personal slush fund. It is encouraging to see there is an investigation into this.”

Payne said “the fact the investigation is still going on shows there seems to be a violation.”

“The way the OCE works, there is an initial stage where a member can simply explain things and disprove a complaint,” Payne said. “If that does not occur, then there is a longer stage. OCE can refer any criminal violation to the Department of Justice.

“Yes, I think there is a high likelihood this has found personal use, due to how long the investigation is going, and that would mean criminal conduct has occurred.”

The nonprofit, nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center was founded by Republican Trevor Potter, a President George H.W. Bush appointee to the Federal Elections Commission. It has received donations from the Open Society Institute founded by billionaire liberal political activist George Soros, among dozens of other foundations and groups. The CLC has a history of filing complaints against candidates or PACs of both parties.

The Sun Herald reported Friday that one of Palazzo’s opponents in the March GOP primary spotted questionable campaign spending, hired a private investigator to look into it, and turned over findings to the Campaign Legal Center and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The newspaper also reported that Southern District Public Service Commissioner Dane Maxwell said he is “aware of the apparent situation” and would consider running for the seat if Palazzo had to leave office.

Brasell said Palazzo has not had any inquiries from the DOJ, Attorney General’s Office or other law enforcement about the campaign finance issues.

At least three members of Congress have resigned and/or been prosecuted over alleged personal use of campaign money.

In 2013, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois pleaded guilty to spending campaign money on a Rolex watch, fur coats, mounted elk heads and other items and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

In 2014, Rep. Rob Andrews of New Jersey resigned from Congress amid years of allegations that he spent campaign money on personal trips and used his daughter’s graduation party to raise campaign money.

In March, former Rep. Duncan Hunter of California was sentenced to 11 months in federal prison for corruption charges from misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds.

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Marshall Ramsey, Editor-at-Large here. Like many other fields, the pandemic has disrupted the media business causing job losses in newsrooms across the country, further diminishing journalism’s watchdog role. As a nonprofit newsroom, it is our mission to help fill gaps in that coverage. Because when the health of our democracy and Mississippi communities are at stake, we know that Mississippians everywhere need reliable sources of news now more than ever.

That’s why just last week our reporters traveled across 24 counties on Election Day — from Bolivar to Lee to Harrison and everywhere in between — to report to you. We do this work for Mississippi, with Mississippi.

And while we are proud to provide this public service free of charge, it’s expensive to produce. The staff time, mileage, records requests and technology all cost real money. We’re committed to reporting on the issues that matter to Mississippians, not just in the weeks surrounding Election Day, but for as long as we can. You play a critical role in ensuring that happens.

Donate to Mississippi Today any time between now and the end of the year and NewsMatch will match your new monthly donation 12x or double your one-time gift, all up to $5,000.

Will you do your part to support public service journalism that never stops reporting to you?

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Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Jefferson County Elementary School math teacher Tomika Wise instructs students in class and those learning at home via laptops in Fayette.

During any given week in Mississippi, thousands of students who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus are in quarantine. For two weeks, they stay home from school, separated from friends, teachers and even other family members within the house. 

Statewide, more than 9,000 students, teachers and staff had to quarantine this past week alone, according to data provided by the Mississippi Department of Health. As a result, parents and teachers must shift how they teach and care for children at home — and some say the impact on student learning and parents’ ability to work is detrimental.

But at least one school district is playing by its own rules when it comes to quarantining. Although state health guidelines recommend that anyone who comes in close contact with an infected person should be quarantined and excluded from the school setting for a full 14 days, the superintendent and school board in the Jackson County School District allow parents to choose whether to quarantine their child after he or she is exposed. 

Jackson County School District

Dr. John Strycker, superintendent of the Jackson County School District.

Last week Superintendent John Strycker penned a letter that began: “Mandatory quarantine of healthy students — is it the right decision? Based on data, Jackson County School District says no.”

Strycker, who came to Jackson County in January from Alabama, said he monitors the district’s COVID-19 numbers daily and is making decisions based on what he believes is best for the children. Last month, he made headlines for his decision to end virtual learning in the district except for students with medical conditions.

He cites the statistic that at any one time, positive COVID-19 cases among his students never exceeded .5%. He calculates that number by periodically taking the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in students over a two-week period and dividing that number by the district’s total enrollment.

“When I was (a superintendent) in Michigan, we’d get up to 10% to 15% of our students (in one building) would have the flu. We’d monitor the situation,” he said. “I was told here in Jackson County that even last year, (flu numbers) got as high as 20%.”

“Are we really going to shut down our schools for a quarter of 1%?” he asked.

Strycker also pointed to data showing students who were learning virtually were failing one or more subjects at high rates. Seventy-eight percent of virtual middle schoolers in the A-rated district were failing more than one subject, while 69% of high schoolers were doing the same. In elementary school the number was 38%. 

Strycker said the data made it clear to him that students — particularly those in poverty and those who already struggle academically — need to be in school. In addition, the teachers were struggling to keep up with the workload of teaching both in person and virtually. 

He went to the school board and told them he had a crisis. 

“I was going to lose my good teachers — they were going to burn out,” he said. “You cannot maintain classroom students and online. K-12 is just not set up that way.” 

As of early November, 98% of students had returned to full-time, in-person learning in the district.

But data submitted by schools to the state health department shows that since the beginning of the school year, the rate of COVID-19 infections among students in Jackson County School District is more than double the rate in surrounding districts since the beginning of the school year. 

When asked what feedback he is receiving from families, staff and community members about not requiring quarantine, Strycker said to look at the numbers.

“Initially (at the beginning of the school year) about 88 to 90% of students came back (to traditional learning), which speaks for itself,” he said. “And we always max out what we’re allowed at football games, the Homecoming parade — I go to something every night.” 

When asked about differing quarantine practices among school districts, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Education said the Mississippi Department of Health and the Office of the Governor lead the state’s pandemic response. 

“All school districts are required to follow the directives of these state authorities. The Mississippi Department of Education does not have the legal authority to enforce public health or executive orders in school districts,” spokeswoman Jean Cook said. “Community members who believe their schools are not following MSDH and CDC public health protocols should immediately contact their local school boards. Issues that are not corrected at the local level should be reported to MSDH.”

A request for comment about Jackson County School District from the state health department was not returned by press time. A spokeswoman referred the reporter to a Facebook town hall event.

In many districts, quarantine numbers affect how decisions are made. In Petal School District, the large numbers of quarantined students led the superintendent to transition the high school from a traditional, in-person schedule to hybrid learning in late October.  

The week before the school made the transition to the new model, 30% of students at Petal High School were quarantined, said superintendent Matt Dillon. 

“We knew going into the school year we were going to have some positive cases (of COVID-19). However, the amount of (students) quarantining has been the most challenging for us,” said Dillon. 

He said because of the active and involved student body across his district and at the high school in particular, the number of students quarantining was consistently high, making learning difficult for teachers and students. 

“From one moment to the next you don’t know who’s going to be quarantined,” he said. “It’s hard for our teachers to teach not only the traditional students but the quarantined students. Trying to juggle all that is really tough.” 

Since transitioning to the new schedule, the quarantine numbers have dropped as intended, said Dillon. 

“It (the hybrid schedule) does pose some challenges for our teachers, but they have done a great job adapting to the new schedule,” he said. 

For Tatia Kiser, a mother of two children in the Madison County School District who have been quarantined, the process wasn’t easy.

Her daughter, a 9th grader at Rosa Scott, was quarantined midway through the fall semester after a classmate she sat next to tested positive for the virus. 

Although both students were wearing masks, the lack of space in the classroom meant they were seated less than six feet apart, her mom said. 

“She was very anxious and worried about it because she had been working really hard for good grades,” Kiser said. “With this particular case they did suspend all the deadlines … but still missing classroom time is stressful on the student.” 

And not all of her daughter’s teachers offered virtual instruction. Instead, she was given handouts and on some occasions offered one-on-one sessions when she returned to school. 

“I will tell you when my daughter went back to school, she was so overwhelmed with the list of missed things. But she did catch up after about five days,” she said. 

Kiser was able to keep working because her daughter was old enough to stay home during the daytime, but she said it would’ve been a different situation if her 9-year-old had to quarantine. 

But despite the stress, she knows quarantining is necessary.

“I trust Madison County schools are doing the best thing for our kids, and I don’t fault them for anything,” she said. “They’re looking out for the whole student body.”

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Gov. Tate Reeves and Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs speak to the media about the coronavirus during a press conference at the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson on March 26, 2020.

Two days after announcing his daughter tested positive for COVID-19 and postponing a press conference, Gov. Tate Reeves went live on Facebook Thursday to share his thoughts on the rising COVID-19 case numbers in Mississippi.

As of Thursday, the seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases in Mississippi reached 968, a 23% increase in the last two weeks. On Wednesday, the average surpassed 1,000 for the first time since Aug. 5.

In a virtual town hall on Thursday, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs warned that the state’s hospital system is under “extreme stress.”

Intensive Care Units are 88% full statewide, and seven of the highest level COVID-care centers have zero beds: Baptist Memorial Hospital in Southaven, Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Baptist Medical Center, St. Dominic, and Merit Health Central in Jackson, and Merit Health Wesley in Hattiesburg.

In the last two weeks, total hospitalizations are up 6%, patients in the ICU are up 15%, and patients on ventilators are up 23%.

“Our fall surge is going in very much the wrong direction over the last week or so,” Dobbs said on Thursday. “We’re seeing near record high case numbers, and the consistency is pretty astounding.”

Meanwhile, Reeves, who is currently quarantining because of possible exposure by his daughter, focused time during his Thursday social media appearance on presidential politics.

After an adviser to President-Elect Joe Biden mentioned the idea of a six-week lockdown, Reeves called the proposal “totally and completely beyond reasonableness.”

“What I would tell you is, even based upon some of the things I’ve heard from his campaign, I don’t think much of anything’s going to change with respect to the virus,” Reeves said. “The fact is, we’re going to try to work with whomever the president is, but we’re not going to participate in a nationwide lockdown.

“While I don’t believe that there’s any constitutional or statutory authority for any president to shut down Mississippi’s economy, we will certainly fight that if it becomes necessary.”

The governor also addressed questions around the criteria for county mask mandates. Currently, the following 15 counties are under mask mandates: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Humphreys, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Marshall, Rankin and Yalobusha.

Reeves said the criteria for issuing county mask mandates has not changed since his office began issuing them.

Previously, he had said counties would be under a mask mandate if they either: had over 200 total cases in the last two weeks, or if they had over 500 cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks.

“There is no fudging of the data, there is no fudging of the numbers,” he said. “It is what it is.”

However, the counties in the chart below meet the second criteria but aren’t under a mask mandate:

Erica Hensley contributed to this report. 

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