ACLU of Mississippi Outraged by the Hinds County School District’s Refusal to Admit Five-Year-Old

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org

Jackson, Miss. – The ACLU of Mississippi is investigating the circumstances of a Hinds County School District official’s search of a Raymond family’s home and the District’s refusal to enroll a five year-old child in the Raymond Elementary School. The ACLU sent a letter to the District Superintendent on this date asking for the child to be enrolled immediately in Kindergarten.

Despite fact that the child’s mother, Ms. Stamps, followed the school’s policy and provided the school with ample documentation of her residency, the District sent a school resource officer to search her home. The School Resource Officer arrived at the home at 6:45 a.m., after Ms. Stamps had already left for work, demanding to see the child’s room. “This flagrant violation of the Stamps family’s Fourth Amendment rights cannot be tolerated,” said Bear Atwood, Legal Director at the ACLU of Mississippi.

“Every child has the right to attend school in the district in which they live,” said ACLU-MS Executive Director, Jennifer Riley-Collins. “Today the ACLU of Mississippi has sent a letter to the Hinds County School District Superintendent asking him to permit Ms. Stamps’ son to attend school tomorrow. We have also asked that the school district cease and desist from using unlawful searches to determine residency and to stop the use of subjective criteria to determine residency.”