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In 2018, Jennifer Rogers warned a task force of lawmakers and college presidents that state financial aid had reached a “tipping point.” The number of students qualifying for financial aid had shot up, but funding hadn’t kept pace. The state’s three main financial aid programs were at risk of running at a deficit. If the Legislature didn’t act soon, students could start to see their aid cut, Rogers said. 

Heeding the advice of Rogers, who is the director of the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid (OFSA), the task force in early 2019 proposed four solutions to Mississippi’s financial aid woes. 

Its most ambitious recommendation was to eliminate two of the state’s primary grants — the Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant (MTAG) and the Mississippi Eminent Scholars Grant (MESG) — and expand the Higher Education Legislative Plan for Needy Students (HELP) program. Not only would this proposal help the state afford its financial aid programs, but it would ensure money got to the students who need it most. 

Two years later, the Legislature has yet to act on a single recommendation from the task force — and it has funded the state financial aid programs at a deficit for the second year in a row, according to statistics released this month in the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid’s annual report. 

“We’ve tipped over,” Rogers told Mississippi Today.

The report also shows that Mississippi continues to disproportionately subsidize college for white students from wealthier families at the expense of working class students of color.

Of the 26,322 students who received a portion of the $45.5 million the state meted out in financial aid last year, more than two-thirds were white. Only 19.7% of all recipients were from the most poverty-stricken families in the state, those that make less than $30,000 per year, while the largest percentage were from homes that make $48,000 or more. This is disproportionate to Mississippi’s demographics.

Essentially, Mississippi is spending almost half of its strained financial aid budget on programs that disproportionately benefit students who are likely to go to college regardless of whether or not they receive state support.

“We’re excluding the highest need students,” said Ann Hendrick, the director of Get2College, a nonprofit that works to increase the number of students attending college statewide. 

Not only have these programs become more expensive since they were enacted in the late 1990s, Hendrick and other advocates for college access say the grants are no longer achieving the goals the state set out to meet when it created them. 

For example, MESG, the state’s primary merit-based grant, aims to keep the best and brightest students in-state for college. But a study from Mississippi State University research center NSPARC commissioned in 2018 found that MESG did not increase in-state enrollment of high-achieving students. Mississippi awarded $7.4 million in MESG grants last year. 

MTAG, the state’s largest program in terms of recipients, was created to support students who do not qualify for need-based federal aid. The idea was to help students from middle-class families who don’t qualify for the Pell Grant but would still struggle to pay for the cost of college. But the Legislature hasn’t increased the amount MTAG awards — between $500 and $1,000 per semester, depending on a student’s academic year — since the program was created in 1995.

When the Legislature created MTAG, “it really made sense,” Rogers said. “The federal Pell Grant program was helping the low-income students and did nothing for the middle-income, working-class parents who wanted to send their kids to college but really couldn’t afford to do so and were getting help from nowhere.” 

That year, MTAG covered 41% of tuition for juniors and seniors at the state’s eight public universities. As the cost of college has increased, the program covered just 12% of tuition last year. 

MTAG, while “still helpful for the middle,” Rogers said, “no longer has the (purchasing) power that it once did.” 

Because the goal was to help students who don’t qualify for Pell Grants, MTAG also excludes low-income students that receive the full Pell Grant. 

“I will be honest. While everybody appreciates every aid they get … I have never heard anybody say without that $500 I could’ve never gone to college,” Hendrick said.

HELP, the state’s only need-based grant, covers the full cost of tuition and fees for students attending public colleges and universities. It is the state’s fastest growing program: 4,411 students were awarded aid last year, nearly double the number of recipients in 2016. 

But only about half the students who apply for HELP actually get it. Part of the reason so many applicants are denied is that, in order to qualify, students must come from families that make no more than $39,500.

“If you make $39,600, you get nothing” from HELP, Rogers said. 

This is because the Legislature set the income limit for HELP at $39,500 in 1999. In 2014, they raised that income limit to $42,500, but the Legislature has never funded the program at a level that would allow OFSA to cover full tuition for families at that income range.

Hendrick said the HELP grant is the most useful one for families.

“The game changing one is the HELP grant. I’ve seen people do dances, tears — it is a game changer because Pell can’t pay for tuition at (one of the state’s public universities). The only way a low-income student who got 20 on the ACT is gonna go to a four-year college or university is they get the HELP grant.” 

For years, OFSA has repeatedly warned in its annual reports to the Legislature that Mississippi’s financial aid programs are growing at a financially unsustainable rate. The Legislature, the office warned, has two options to fix the funding gap: Invest more money in the state’s existing financial aid programs or redesign the state aid offerings to more wisely spend its dollars. 

The 2018 task force to study financial aid recommended the state redesign its programs to prioritize working class students by phasing out MESG and MTAG and creating one grant solely based on need. Significantly, the committee also suggested creating a pilot program to smooth the funding cliff for HELP, so that families making more than $39,500 could still receive need-based aid. 

But the Legislature never did this. Instead, Hendrick says it seems like legislators have mainly attempted to limit who can qualify for financial aid. She pointed to Senate Bill 2547, a bill introduced this session by Sen. Briggs Hopson, R-Vicksburg, that would raise ACT scores to 17 for MTAG, 30 for MESG, and 20 from a single test administered to be eligible for HELP. 

Currently, students must score a 15 on the ACT to get MTAG, a 29 for MESG and a superscore (highest cumulative score) of 20 for HELP. Raising the qualifying ACT scores is problematic, Hendricks said, because the current data shows it can have the effect of excluding students of color, who often don’t have access to the same ACT preparation programs as affluent, majority white districts. Because ACT scores highly correlate with income, MESG is one of the most racially disparate financial aid programs in the state, while HELP is the most racially equitable program. 

In a Senate Universities and Colleges Committee meeting last week discussing SB 2547, Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson proposed an amendment to the bill that would eliminate MTAG, limit MESG recipients to students from families making 200% or less of the median household income in the state, and raise the income limit for HELP by $10,000. 

“What we ought to be about is what’s best for the state,” he added. “And what’s best for the state is to have more people go to college, complete college and graduate from college… We can’t just wait and wait and wait and keep doing what we’ve been doing, have deficits every year, and give money to families of students who are perfectly capable of paying tuition.”

The amendment failed, but the bill ultimately passed out of committee and will come before the full Senate by Feb. 11 if lawmakers intend to move it forward in the legislative process.

Meanwhile, the Mississippi Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Board, which oversees OFSA, has started a series of strategic planning meetings to push the Legislature to act. 

Hendrick said she would encourage the Legislature to look at “who benefits the most rather than just making changes across the board that would change financial aid for all students.” 

“Are we giving the right amount of money to the right students in order to make college accessible and affordable?” Hendrick added. “Are we really looking at it to see who benefits the most?”

Editor’s note: Get2College is a program of the Woodward Hines Education Foundation, a Mississippi Today donor.

The post ‘We’re excluding the highest need students’: Most recipients of financial aid in Mississippi are from wealthier families appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Hattiesburg’s old high school gymnasium, long since abandoned, burned down in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Thankfully, the memories live on. And we will get to those.

The gym, completed in 1937, was home to the Hattiesburg High Tigers for nearly 50 years. The gym never really had a name. Some folks called it Hawkins Gymnasium, because Hawkins Junior High was across the street. Mostly, we just called it “the old high school gym,” no capital letters necessary. It was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, one of thousands across the U.S. and one of hundreds across Mississippi. Thank you, FDR.

It was both quirky and creaky, that old gym was. It always seemed to me that it might house ghosts. The court was 104 feet long, 12 feet longer than regulation courts. It had humps in the floor. It had dead spots, too, where the ball wouldn’t bounce the way it was supposed to.

“As home court advantages go, it was the best,” said Purvis Short, who led Hattiesburg High to the 1974 state championship, and would go on to score more than 14,000 points in the NBA. “I have literally hundreds of memories of that place, and all of them are good. That’s rare, isn’t it?”

The old gym is where Coach Johnny Hurtt taught Purvis Short how to shoot high-arching jump shots by guarding him in shooting drills with a broomstick. It is where Hurtt often employed a full-court press to run opponents into submission.

“We knew where all those dead spots were and we made sure the other team had to dribble on them,” Short said. “Can’t tell you how many times we stole the ball like that. Plus the court was so long. The visiting teams weren’t used to that. Man, they were huffing and puffing.”

Purvis followed two years behind his older brother, Eugene, who led the Tigers to the 1972 state championship. Both Purvis and Eugene would go on to play in some of the most famous arenas in the country: Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden and the Forum in L.A., among them.

“The Boston Garden really reminded me of our old high school gym,” Purvis Short said. “There were some dead spots in the floor, but mostly it was the baskets — best shooting baskets in the world. Our goals in Hattiesburg and the ones at the (Boston) Garden were the sweetest shooting goals. They were soft, forgiving. Great backgrounds too.”

And both gone now.

The old Hattiesburg gym was the site of so many classic Gulfport-Hattiesburg games, back when Bert Jenkins coached Gulfport and Sam Hollingsworth and then Johnny Hurtt coached the Hattiesburg Tigers. For my money, Jenkins remains the greatest high school coach — maybe coach at any level — in Mississippi history. Hollingsworth and Hurtt should make anyone’s top 10. In 1970, my senior year in high school, Gulfport went 45-1, and, yes, the one came in our old gym where the great Buddy Davenport — and maybe the ghosts — led the Tigers past the Commodores 47-39.

My single greatest memory of that fine, old gym did not involve the Short brothers, Hattiesburg or Gulfport. No, this was in February of 1966, when I was a 13-year-old gym rat who had heard all the seemingly tall tales of a basketball phenom down in Hancock County named Wendell Ladner.

Ladner-led Hancock was to play West Lauderdale and the great Randy Hodges, a tall shooting guard, in the South State championship in our gym, which had a capacity of maybe 2,000.

That night it seemed all of south Mississippi — and most every college recruiter in the country — wanted to be in that gym. Every available inch of seating was taken. Fans stood at either end and in all the doorways. If you needed restroom relief, you were out of luck. Fire marshals had their hands full. Hundreds were turned away.

Most of Hancock County got in before the marshals locked the doors. They all wore red, and they all went absolutely berserk when Wondrous Wendell led his team onto the court. Ladner went straight for the bucket at the far end of the court and slammed the ball through with a windmill dunk that brought such thunderous applause that old gym seemed to shake. Ladner continued his dunk show throughout layup drills. After his last dunk, he stood, grinning, beneath the basket and hoisted his teammates, one by one, so they could dunk their last time through the layup line.

And then Ladner scored 39 points and pulled down 27 rebounds to lead Hancock past Hodges and West Lauderdale in one of the great one-man shows you can imagine. At one point, Ladner kept jumping up and down and bouncing the ball off the backboard, almost like playing volleyball with himself, before finally tipping the ball through the hoop. “Aw, Coach, I didn’t think you’d mind me having some fun,” he told his coach, Roland Ladner, when scolded at the next timeout.

You should have been there. I am so glad I was. I hate the old gym that never had — nor needed — a name is gone. I am glad the memories remain.

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The Mississippi Legislature is considering a proposal to expand Medicaid – for incarcerated people.

The state’s Republican leadership has long rejected efforts to expand Medicaid, as is allowed under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, to provide health care coverage to as many as 300,000 Mississippians – many of them the working poor who are employed in jobs that do not provide health insurance and who do not make enough to afford to purchase private coverage.

While the Mississippi Legislature and Gov. Tate Reeves have rejected efforts to provide Medicaid coverage to the working poor, a proposal is making its way through the Legislature to allow chronically sick incarcerated people to be paroled to special facilities where they would be placed on Medicaid. Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, said the proposal is a good idea because if the prisoners are on Medicaid the federal government will be paying two-thirds of their health care costs.

Currently, the state is spending at least $80 million annually on health care for prisoners, Wiggins said.

Many would agree it makes financial sense to allow the federal government to pay the bulk of the cost for state prisoners.

But during recent debate of the bill, Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, expressed dismay that the state is turning down federal funds to help provide health care coverage for working Mississippians while considering a proposal to take federal funds to provide health care for prisoners.

“At the same time we turn down a billion dollars a year (in federal Medicaid expansion funds) to help someone not incarcerated …we are asking the federal government to pay for possibly the hospitalization of inmates. I am confused,” Jordan said.

Jordan is not against providing health care for these people. He just questioned the wisdom of rejecting the federal funds for non-incarcerated Mississippians. The difference, which Jordan knows, is that the state is legally obligated to pay the health care costs for people it incarcerates. The state is not obligated to provide health care coverage for the average Mississippian, though, many would argue it is morally the right thing to do and also is good public policy.

The Mississippi Hospital Association has long argued that Medicaid expansion would provide a savings for their member hospitals by reducing the number of patients they treat who have no insurance and no ability to pay for their treatment. That uncompensated care costs the hospitals incur impact everyone, including the hospitals and those with insurance and with the ability to pay.

Who does not believe hospitals and other medical providers raise rates on the insured to help cover their uncompensated care costs?

On the other hand, Mississippi’s Republican leadership has long said the state could not afford to put up the 10% match in state funds to pull down that potential $1 billion annually in federal funds that Jordan referenced. The Hospital Association has said its members are willing to pay a tax to help with the state costs.

Reeves rejected Medicaid expansion during his successful campaign in 2019 for governor. As late as last week he reiterated his opposition to Medicaid expansion.

“I will tell you if an entity is providing through a tax a match…somebody is going to pay,” said Reeves, adding that taxpayers or patients would end up paying for any tax imposed on hospitals.  “..I am not for Medicaid expansion in Mississippi.”

It will be interesting to see whether Reeves will sign into law the bill expanding Medicaid for prisoners, if it gets to his desk.

Wiggins said, based on analysis, if the bill becomes law, for a facility with 100 beds the cost to the federal government for treating incarcerated people would be between $6.4 million and $12.8 million annually, while the cost to the state would be between $1.9 million and $3.8 million per year.

“It is actually the equivalent of a hospice situation to be quite honest,” Wiggins said. “…This is an idea to relieve some of the pressure and to reduce the costs” for the Department of Corrections.

The entire Medicaid expansion debate proves that in Mississippi some things never change. Mississippi was one of the last states to opt into the federal-state health care partnership that was enacted in 1965. In 1969, the Mississippi Legislature finally agreed to opt into the original Medicaid program after a marathon-length special session than ran from July 22 to Oct. 10.

Then-Gov. John Bell Williams, who opposed the enactment of Medicaid as a member of Congress, led the charge in 1969 for Mississippi to enact Medicaid – recognizing it as a good deal for the citizens of the state.

Today 38 states have adopted Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor.

Mississippi, of course, is not one of those states, though its policymakers are considering expanding Medicaid coverage to incarcerated people.

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The state Senate on Friday approved a year-long study of the efficacy of privatizing some state parks and giving others to local governments. But even the study drew fierce criticism from some lawmakers who say the state’s neglected parks should be spruced up, not given away or leased.

“It’s heartbreaking to hear serious discussion of, instead of doing the sensible thing, talking about privatization,” said Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory. “… Anyone who thinks (the parks study) isn’t an attempt to privatize state parks is mistaken. Look at where it’s coming from … We give billions and billions and billions of dollars away to the well connected, and billions of dollars to out-of-state corporations, but when was the last time we focused on the core functions of government? The pattern plays out — we neglect something, then let a bunch of big boys come in and take over and make a bunch of money.

“These public lands belong to all of us,” Bryan continued.

Senate Bill 2486 was authored by Senate Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Chairman Neil Whaley, R-Potts Camp, and backed by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. The measure originally would have left only four of the state’s 25 parks under Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks management. Others would be leased to private entities, turned over to counties or cities or converted to wildlife conservation areas.

But after the bill sparked criticism and House leaders indicated it wouldn’t fly in their chamber, the measure was changed to create a study committee that would report back to lawmakers before next year’s session. The Senate passed the measure on Friday, but with a dozen senators voting against it.

Hosemann has said many parks could benefit from “an infusion of knowledge and capital” from privatization. Others during Friday’s debate agreed.

Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, told her colleagues that the Little Black Creek Park near her home had been run by the Pat Harrison Waterway District and over years fell into disrepair. She said the park was taken over by private management and “now you can’t even get a site there it’s so nice.”

“I’ve seen (privatization) save that park,” Hill said. “We already have a group that runs the golf courses at our state parks, and they’re in better shape now … We are not utilizing our resources like other states around us … And if you haven’t noticed, during the pandemic, RVs are the hottest thing since sliced bread.”

Mississippi’s state parks have suffered from years of neglected maintenance and budget cuts to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks. The price tag to bring the state’s 25 parks (three of which are run by local governments) up to snuff is an estimated $147 million. Plus, millions more a year would be needed to keep them up — prompting discussion of privatization and a search for other options.

But privatization of parks has drawn fierce debate nationwide and in Mississippi. Opponents fear private developers would “cherry pick” the best state parks that could turn profits leaving others neglected, or that privatization would turn parks into expensive resorts and limit public access.

Meanwhile, House leaders are moving legislation to create a permanent stream of money to repair and improve the state’s long-neglected parks. House Bill 1231 would divert about $1 million a year in sales taxes collected at sporting goods stores to a new “Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund.”

House Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Chairman Bill Kinkade, author of this measure, said providing dedicated funding to state parks — as other states do — is the best long-range solution and giving parks away is “short sighted.”

Another House measure that would have diverted about $3.5 million a year from the state’s lottery proceeds died in House committee this week.

Kinkade said the House likely will move to approve some borrowing this year for park improvements.

Other states cash in on state park tourism, with the COVID-19 pandemic driving demand for RV-ing, camping and outdoor vacationing and recreation.

Mississippi receives about 1 million visitors to its parks each year. Arkansas state parks attract nearly 8.5 million visitors annually and serve as the state’s largest tourism draw, generating more than $1 billion a year for that state’s economy. Alabama sees nearly 5 million visitors to its parks annually, with an economic impact of about $375 million.

In Arkansas, parks are funded through a dedicated “conservation tax.” In Alabama, parks are 90% self-funded through fees and rentals. Mississippi parks lack an adequate dedicated funding source.

Kinkade said Georgia has a trust fund for parks similar to the one being proposed here.

Mississippi state parks spending has been cut by nearly 60% since 2000, and staffing by 70%. The Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks lacks manpower and money for even routine maintenance. The initial legislative budget recommendation for the coming year would cut the department another $900,000, or by about 15%.

Most of the state’s 600 structures in its parks are in need of some repair — from major to minor, MDWFP has reported.

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The name of the song was “Midnight Plane to Houston.” Jimmy Weatherly, the singing and song-writing former Ole Miss quarterback, loved his new tune, but it was going nowhere fast.

His agent pitched it to Gladys Knight and the Pips, who had successfully recorded another of his songs, “Neither One of Us.” For whatever reason, they rejected the Houston song.

So then it was pitched to Cissy Houston, better known now as Whitney Houston’s mother, and a fine singer in her own right. Cissy Houston changed the lyrics from a plane to Houston to a train to Georgia, recorded it and it made the charts. Then Gladys Knight and the Pips changed their minds and they recorded it as well. Surely you know the rest of the story. “Midnight Train to Georgia” went to No. 1, a Grammy-winning mega-hit, and remains on Rolling Stones list of top 500 songs of all-time.

“I’m missing Jim Weatherly already. He was about life and love. Neither One of Us and Midnight Train – I remember him getting his Grammys for those. We were just made for each other. We grew our lives together. I’m gonna miss him terribly and love him always.”

— Gladys Knight (@MsGladysKnight) February 4, 2021

It is a song writer’s dream come true, and the best known song of a multi-talented guy, born and raised in Pontotoc. Jim Weatherly, who lived a lot of dreams, died Wednesday at his home in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood. He was 77.

Jimmy Weatherly was Archie Manning’s hero when Manning was a red-headed, freckle-faced teen, who car-pooled around the Delta to listen to Weatherly’s band: Jim Weatherly and the Vegas.

“He was pretty much my idol,” Manning said. “I mostly listened to his Ole Miss games on the radio, but I went to a whole bunch of dances all over the place where he and his band were playing. He was a really handsome, Elvis-looking guy with that jet black hair all slicked back. And he could sing and play. I remember one night in Rosedale, I went right up to the stage, right in front of him and never left. Oh, my gosh, he was something.”

Manning was listening on the radio in 1962 when Ole Miss was trying to finish off a perfect season against Mississippi State. The great Glynn Griffing was a senior and the Rebels’ star quarterback, but John Vaught, the coach, often played three quarterbacks in those days. Perry Lee Dunn, a junior, and Weatherly, a sophomore, both played a lot. In fact, Weatherly was in the game in the fourth quarter with Ole Miss nursing a 7-6 lead. From the sidelines came the play, a simple handoff from Weatherly to running back Dave Jennings. Only Vaught had tweaked the play for that game, a tweak that changed the quarterback’s footwork and the timing of the handoff. Weatherly forgot. He was late with the handoff.

So, of course, what resulted was one of the great “fakes” in handoff history. State players went for Jennings. Weatherly was in the clear. He ran 43 yards for the game-clinching touchdown. That’s right: The game-winning play that clinched the only perfect season in Ole Miss history was a busted play.

Weatherly came off the field laughing and was greeted by Ole Miss trainer Doc Knight. “I missed the handoff!” Weatherly shouted.

“Don’t tell anybody!” Knight answered.

But of course Weatherly did. He was as modest as he was talented.

You should know that Weatherly was also really good when the plays weren’t busted.

“Jim Weatherly was a great quarterback and a great guy,” says Mike Dennis, the former Ole Miss and NFL running back who was his suite-mate in the Ole Miss athletic dorm. “He could run. He could throw really catch-able passes. He was a leader. And he was one of the nicest guys in history, plus he never smoked, never took a drink, never even cussed.”

Count sports writer Jeff Roberson, Weatherly’s first cousin, among the many shocked by Weatherly’s death. Roberson’s father and Weatherly’s mother were brother and sister. Roberson wrote the book on Weatherly: “Midnight Train.” The two cousins last talked last week.

“Jimmy hadn’t been sick or anything,” Roberson said. “He was looking forward to getting back out and around. He was looking forward to writing more. He had plans. It was almost like he was getting a second wind on his song-writing career.”

We can only imagine what gems that might have produced. Years ago, writer Billy Watkins wrote that many Mississippi boys dream of being a star quarterback or a guitar-playing singer songwriter. Jimmy Weatherly, Watkins wrote, did both.

Plus he was Archie Manning’s hero. How good is that?

I asked Jeff Roberson what people who never met Jimmy Weatherly should know about him. “Well, Jimmy loved his family, he loved football, he loved his friends, and, of course, he loved music,” Roberson said. “He loved home. He loved Pontotoc. He always said that he has lived a lot of his life in California and in Tennessee but he never considered himself anything other than a Mississippian.”

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On the night of June 15, 2018, Lauderdale County authorities found 9-year-old Kinadee Pace hiding in the top of her bunk bed.

What the young girl had witnessed that night is unspeakable: Her stepmother Marsha Spears Harbour was shot in the head, allegedly by her father Truitt Pace. Harbour died a few hours later at the hospital, and Truitt Pace was charged with second-degree murder and booked in the Lauderdale County jail.

Kinadee, now 12, had seen more of the violence in the next room than anyone could have imagined.

“My daughter was a very sparkly, glittery, vibrant personality before this,” said Kelsi Long, the girl’s mother and first wife of Truitt Pace. “I had to put her in counseling, and it was a very long time before I got that sparkly, glittery child back.”

In Mississippi, there are many stories like these. But because the state is one of five in the country not to have a domestic violence fatality review, or a review of deaths caused by domestic violence for the purpose of preventing future deaths, there is no data on exactly how many. 

The reviews involve selecting certain cases that are assessed by a team of law enforcement, court personnel, attorneys, victim advocates and medical professionals, among others, to identify commonalities and gaps in the system-wide response to domestic violence cases.

Victim advocates and those who work in the system say Mississippi is dropping the ball by not tracking this and other domestic violence-related data. The result is a disjointed response from law enforcement, prosecutors and courts that fails vulnerable people.  

Heather Wagner, an attorney who served as the director of the Domestic Violence Division of the Bureau of Victim Assistance with the state Attorney General’s office from 2006 to 2014, said more should be done.

“It is very disappointing that with all the education opportunities afforded to law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and court personnel related to the potential danger of ongoing domestic violence situations that more isn’t being done to try and prevent these terrible situations before they occur,” said Wagner, who also served as the director of the Office of Interpersonal Violence at the state health department.

“There are effective strategies that can be used to ensure that each case is viewed independently and assessed for risk level,” she continued. “We are failing some of our most vulnerable citizens by not prioritizing the use of these strategies, which may include on-site risk assessment by law enforcement and better sharing of information and case history between law enforcement, prosecutors, civil attorneys and the courts.” 

Sandy Middleton, executive director of the Center for Violence Prevention, an organization that helps domestic violence victims in Mississippi, echoes Wagner.

“Because these fatalities aren’t reviewed, we are missing a good opportunity to learn what we’re doing wrong,” she said. “It’s important for us as a state to look at all these cases and evaluate what works and what doesn’t.” 

And attempts to better track domestic violence crimes have not taken off. As of Feb. 1, only 93 out of 512 law enforcement agencies have completed the training required to participate in a new, mandated system that would better track domestic violence, according to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.

Despite the fact they are required by law to become certified and use the new system, there is no penalty for not doing so. 

Over the course of two months, Mississippi Today asked for information from and interviews with experts in the state attorney general’s office, which serves as the primary state agency offering assistance and resources for domestic violence victims. The agency also offers education and training of law enforcement and prosecutors in domestic violence cases, in addition to other domestic violence-related duties. None of these requests were filled, so the agency’s efforts surrounding domestic violence and its record keeping around the issue are unclear.

For most of the last decade, Mississippi has consistently ranked in the top 20 states for the number of women murdered by men, according to the Violence Policy Center. This research is based strictly on the numbers of women killed by men, but it does not reveal any information about the relationship between the suspect and victim or whether there was a history of domestic abuse, as data from a domestic violence fatality review would. 

Studies show women everywhere are more likely to be murdered with a gun than all other means combined. They are also most likely to be killed by someone they know.

And the ripple effects of domestic violence are hard to overstate. It has grave and lifelong effects on the victims, the children who experience it and those who lose a loved one to it. 

“(Kinadee’s) life was changed that day,” said Long. “It was a childhood that was taken away from her, an innocence.” 

On the night Harbour died, Kinadee’s father Truitt Pace was charged with second-degree murder and booked in the Lauderdale County jail. Despite the fact the charge would later be upgraded by the district attorney’s office to first-degree murder, Pace bonded out of jail several days later on a $100,000 bond set by a justice court judge — a relatively low bond according to the guidelines that dictate bond ranges for certain crimes.

Ondray Harris, a justice court judge who had been in his position less than a year at the time, set the bond for Truitt Pace. When reached by Mississippi Today, he said he generally tries not to set high bonds because of what he’s been taught in his training from the Mississippi Judicial College, which trains and educates judges and other court personnel in the state.

“I had a lot come my way that year and a lot of stuff I didn’t have the knowledge about that I have now,” said Harris, who could not recall Truitt Pace’s case specifically. “I’ve learned now to listen to the scenario and the severity of it … It would be a lot different because there’s a lot of different knowledge I’ve accumulated since then.” 

Truitt Pace had no prior criminal record, and there is no record of law enforcement ever being called to his and Harbour’s home. 

As a result, he spent less than a week in jail before bonding out and has been free since — nearly three years later. Attempts to reach Truitt Pace’s attorney in the public defender’s office were unsuccessful.

“That is a slap in the face to that woman’s family, and I’m not so sure he’s not a danger to the community,” said Christi McCoy, lawyer and project director for North Mississippi Rural Legal Services who works primarily with victims of domestic violence through the Earlene Gardner Victims Assistance Program.

Jacquelyn Campbell, a professor of nursing at Johns Hopkins University and a prominent figure in the field of domestic violence research, said the major issues in the criminal justice system apply to domestic violence as well.

“One of the issues in the field is that privilege and resources oftentimes determine whether or not laws are applied,” she said. 

For example, judges consider a prior criminal record when determining a person’s level of supervision on probation or when determining an offender’s bond amount. Men of color are more likely to have a record due to over-policing in those communities and bias in the justice system, Campbell said. 

Truitt Pace, a white man, had no “priors.” But Harbour’s family members say there was a history of domestic violence in their relationship.

Toward the end of her life, Harbour began talking to Long, Truitt Pace’s first wife, when she would pick up Kinadee on the weekends. The two developed a special relationship.

“She would kind of hang around a little bit longer and try to, you know, pick my brain about things, how it was when we were together,” Long said. 

The closer they got, the more Harbour shared. Long still has texts from Harbour revealing details of the abuse. 

“He’s starting to tell me that my kids would be better off if I killed myself like my mom …” one read.

Another talks about a time “truitt had me pinned on the bed with a knife to my throat.”

Long said Harbour told her Truitt Pace had broken her nose. He would threaten to kill her, telling her he dreamed of her being dead from a gunshot wound and hiding her body in a culvert he knew of in Newton County, Long said. 

Harbour feared if she had him arrested, it would put her, her three children and Kinadee in more danger, said Long. 

“She knew nothing would inevitably get done, and it would put her in more danger. At the end of the day, it’s just a piece of paper,” said Long, referring to a domestic violence protection order. “She was so scared.”

Harbour’s sister Ashley Hagan describes Harbour as “a light in the darkness” — someone always looking to help others. 

“She helped me numerous times through all kinds of stuff,” said Hagan. “She’d also help her friends through anything — a place to stay, food. She didn’t just say ‘I’m here if you need me,’ she was actually there.”

When Hagan got the call in the early hours of June 16, 2018, telling her that her sister had been killed, she learned for the first time that she was an organ donor.  

“It gave my heart happiness in that darkness because she was still helping people,” Hagan said.

But beneath a cheerful and helpful exterior, Harbour was fighting her own battles. 

Hagan said Truitt Pace was always very controlling of Harbour, who Hagan describes as a social butterfly. 

He was possessive of her even around her three children, whom she had with her first husband, Hagan said.

“He alienated her. With the kids, he tried not letting her take them home (to their father’s),” she said. “In the times they weren’t fighting, if (one of the kids) would sit with her while they were watching TV he’d push the kids away and say ‘No, go play.’ He always had to have her to himself.”

Hagan recounted an incident that happened about a month or two into her stay at their house, when Truitt Pace came home to Harbour taking a bath. Harbour had her phone in the bathtub, and Hagan said he became angry because he thought she was on social media, which he did not like. 

Harbour told him she was using the phone to listen to music, but he still became angry. 

“They were fighting over the iPhone, and he threw her iPhone on her back so goddamn hard the iPhone was shattered and bent from my sister’s back,” she said. “It was bad.” 

Hagan banged on the door and threatened to call 911 if Truitt Pace didn’t leave the house.  

“He took me serious, and he left,” she remembered. “Marsha was a little upset with me … She was scared it was going to be worse for her” and her three children if the police were involved.

Harbour, like many other women in an abusive relationship, struggled to leave. It takes an average of seven attempts for a domestic violence victim to finally leave the relationship, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. 

And leaving is the most unsafe time for a victim — a statistic that became a tragic reality for Harbour, who was in the process of divorcing Truitt Pace when she died, family members say.

Psychological ramifications of abuse can also prevent a victim from seeking help, according to Wendy Mahoney, executive director of the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder are commonly seen in victims of domestic violence.

“The abuse impacts an individual psychologically in a way most people tend not to even understand,” said Mahoney. “If you have fears of retaliation and additional harm, that can prevent you from getting help.” 

Mahoney and others who work with victims of interpersonal violence also point to the constant overprocessing going on in a victim’s mind. 

Advocates for victims of domestic violence use a common phrase to describe why some women stay in abusive relationships: “the devil you know.”

“A lot of times, people who are victims have learned to cope. They know the patterns and can anticipate when tensions are building, so they will change their behavior to try to de-escalate a situation,” said Georgia Grodowitz, the executive director at Haven House Family Shelter in Vicksburg, one of the state’s 12 shelters for domestic violence victims. “Or, they will sometimes even escalate the situation in order to get it over with so they can move on into that quiet after-period.”

Because they’ve become expert at adapting to the situation, learning and mastering the ins and outs, the unknown can seem more frightening than the known.

“They think, ‘What am I jumping into? I know what I’m jumping out of.’ It’s the ‘devil you know is worse than the devil you don’t know’” thought process, said Grodowitz. 

Nearly three years after Harbour’s death, the family is eager for justice. But Truitt Pace’s trial has been rescheduled five times. The trial was moved this week once more from Feb. 8 to Aug. 16.

In the meantime, he lives in Alabama where he runs a roofing and construction business. He has turned down repeated opportunities to plead guilty, court documents show. 

The reasons for the delays range from “attorney out of town” and “time to investigate,” but district attorney Kassie Coleman said it is more complicated than that. A year-long wait for Harbour’s autopsy to come back from the Mississippi Crime Lab, a turnover of public defenders handling Truitt Pace’s case and the COVID-19 pandemic all contributed to the delays, said Coleman.

A case has not been tried in Lauderdale County since February 2020, Coleman said. An attempt to seat a jury in October led to a mistrial after a judge discovered on the first day he had been exposed to the coronavirus over the weekend. 

“We indict about 1,200 cases a year here, and there’s only so many weeks in the year,” she said, noting her passion for prosecuting domestic violence and related crimes. “I spent eight years prosecuting crimes against women and children as an assistant district attorney, so it is very near and dear to my heart.”

In the meantime, Harbour’s family waits, and Pace walks free.

The post A life taken and a childhood lost: The devastating effects of domestic violence appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The long-awaited vaccine for COVID-19 — and the many questions about its availability, delivery and safety — is the story of 2021.

As a journalist who has covered the pandemic for months, I felt it was appropriate to lend a first-person perspective to how this process is working in Mississippi. After officials opened vaccine eligibility to any Mississippian with certain pre-existing conditions, I received a first dose of the vaccine on Jan. 26.

Here’s my experience.

Scheduling the vaccine appointment

This was by far the most difficult step of the entire process. I tried for more than two weeks to schedule an appointment, becoming frustrated with technical glitches in early January and testing my computer savviness later in the month.

My priority was getting a vaccine appointment for my 84-year-old grandmother. But I also knew I qualified because I have one of several pre-existing conditions that qualifies any Mississippian for a vaccine.

I, like many thousands of Mississippians, rushed to the Mississippi State Department of Health vaccine scheduler website when the state received its first large batch of vaccines in early January. I couldn’t get through the website because so many Mississippians logged on at the same time that the site crashed.

A few days later, I tried again when officials announced more appointments were available. The appointments had been booked up by the time I got there, but the technical glitches had been worked out.

On Jan. 18, Reeves announced more appointments were available. (Tip: I would suggest turning on Twitter notifications for Gov. Tate Reeves — he has been announcing on Twitter when new appointments are opened on the MSDH website.) I again rushed to the now surge-tested website. 

Before you can actually book the appointment, the MSDH website asks several questions. Those questions include:

• Are you a healthcare worker/personnel?
• Are you 65 years of age or older?
• Are you between 18-64 years of age with the specifically listed underlying medical conditions?
• Do you have a history of severe allergic reactions?
• Have you received any other vaccine within the past two weeks?
• Are you pregnant, breastfeeding, or immunocompromised?
• Have you recently been exposed to a person with COVID-19 within the last 14 days, or are you currently under quarantine for exposure?
• Have you received monoclonal or antibody therapy for COVID-19 in the previous 90 days?
• Have you recently or previously tested positive for COVID-19?
• Is this your first or second dose?

After answering those questions, I was able to schedule a vaccine appointment for my grandmother in Madison County and an appointment for myself in DeSoto County. 

Getting the vaccine

On Jan. 26, I anxiously headed to the designated clinic in Hernando a little earlier than my scheduled time. I was thankful I went early after being informed they’d moved the drive-thru vaccination site to The Landers Center in Southaven for extra space. That easy-to-navigate location change is the most dramatic problem I’ve heard of anyone having in Mississippi.

When I arrived at the proper location, a Mississippi National Guard member asked me to fill out a form asking the same questions I’d had to answer to book the appointment. 

Right on time, I was able to pull my car under a tent, where another National Guard member introduced himself and gave me the shot. I turned away so I didn’t have to see the needle go into my arm. It ended up hurting less than any time I’ve had blood drawn. 

The entire paperwork and inoculation process took less than 10 minutes.

The guardsman who administered the shot said I’d need to park close by and gave me a sticky note with the time I’d be able to leave the parking lot on it. They keep you around for 15 minutes after receiving the shot to make sure you don’t have any adverse reactions to it. I was asked to honk your horn if you need help and to keep your vehicle unlocked just in case.

Feeling great, I left when the 15 minutes was up. It was truly the easiest, most stress-free medical appointment of my life.

The after-effects and next steps 

For several days after I received my first dose, the spot where I’d been injected was sore, but only if I pressed on it. The level of soreness varies person to person. I didn’t experience any of the fever or fatigue that some have reported after being inoculated.

On Feb. 25, I’ll get my second dose of the vaccine. When I got my first dose, I was told I had to wait until two weeks before my second dose was due to book that second appointment. But about a week ago, the MSDH announced Mississippians can book their second dose appointment the day they receive the first dose.

In a few weeks, I’ll do the entire process over again and receive my second dose. And a few weeks after that, I’ll be able to hug my grandmother for the first time since March 2020 without feeling fear or guilt. I can’t put into words how grateful I am for that.

If you had told me a few months ago that I’d be inoculated against COVID-19 by the end of February, I wouldn’t have believed you. The difficulties of getting an appointment will continue into the coming months, but I’m glad that supply chain issues are the biggest hurdle. The state’s top health officials and the many people working MSDH’s drive-thru vaccination sites should be commended for their dedication to getting shots in people’s arms as quickly as the state can distribute them.

READ MORE: Frequently asked questions about COVID-19 vaccines in Mississippi

The post I got a COVID-19 vaccine in Mississippi. Here’s what you can expect. appeared first on Mississippi Today.