[9/18/03]A week after a fatal shooting on school property, the Vicksburg Warren School District superintendent, a state senator and a principal are backing a plan to move older students who are misbehaving out of mainstream classrooms.

Another legislator, Rep. George Flaggs, who has 15 years as a counselor of juvenile offenders, said they may be jumping the gun.

“I think we have to give the school district more authority to place a child where they think they can be most benefited,” said Sen. Mike Chaney, vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee and whose wife taught in public schools for more than 20 years. “We want to be certain the classroom is safe for all students and that we do not unduly hurt those students trying to achieve an education.”

The proposal is coming to light a week after O’Dare Lee Earl Mims was killed near the field houses at Memorial Stadium, on school property across from Vicksburg High School on Lee and Drummond streets. Walter Jefferson, 20, was arrested minutes later and charged with capital murder.

During the first week of the school year, 20-year-old Anthony Ray Evans was charged with making a bomb threat by calling 911. The report delayed classes while the school was cleared and searched.

State law now says that any resident 21 or younger who lives as a dependent must be offered the opportunity for public education.

The plans backed by Chaney, VHS principal Charlie Tolliver and district Superintendent James Price are based on legislation passed last year in Louisiana that allows for older students who misbehave to be moved, without being expelled, from classrooms with younger students.

The proposal states that students who show disruptive behavior, an uncontrollable attitude or other discipline problems, or who commit acts that would result in suspension or expulsion may be recommended by the principal for expulsion, assignment to an alternative educational program or transfer to an adult education program if the student is:

17 or older with fewer than five units of credit toward graduation, or

18 or older with fewer than 10 units of credit toward graduation, or

19 or older with fewer than 15 units of credit toward graduation.

Twenty-three and a half units are required to graduate.

“The real issue is not the age of the child, it is the behavior of the child,” said Chaney, who is seeking his second term in the Senate in November balloting.

Marcie Southerland, Chaney’s Democratic opponent, did not return calls.

Chaney said legislators will look at giving the school district more flexibility and authority to place children in a program, such as an alternative school or a GED program.

“I think we have to give the school district more authority to place a child where they think they can be most benefited,” Chaney said. “We want to be certain the classroom is safe for all students and that we do not unduly hurt those students trying to achieve an education.”

Flaggs of Vicksburg, the senior member of the county’s legislative delegation who’s been a counselor for the Warren County Youth Court since 1988, said he would not support any proposed legislation until he has looked at it more thoroughly.

He said the school district has legislation in place to remove problem students from classrooms.

“People are acting on two isolated incidents, and I think they need to rethink what they’re doing,” Flaggs said. He added that Jefferson, the man charged with killing Mims, had no previous record of discipline problems in the school.

Flaggs, a Democrat, accused Chaney, a Republican, of getting behind the legislation for political reasons during an election year.

According to policy in place now, Price said, the only way a student with behavioral problems can be removed from class is through expulsion or suspension.

Price said an example of an alternative education program is the Youth Court Assistance Center at Grove Street Elementary School. He said the school district is also developing a GED program for older students.

“Our mission is not to kick students out of school and put them on the streets or to have them sit in front of TVs all day,” he said. “Our mission is to teach our young people, and if they can’t be taught with their peers or younger students successfully, then we will assess their needs and teach them on a one-to-one basis with their parents’ assistance.

“If a student wants to come to school, behave and learn, then we want him in our system,” Price said. “On the other hand, if by his behavior he proves to us otherwise, then we need to have the ability to remove him from our environment.”