City schools experience rash of incidents
By By Ben Alexander/The Meridian Star
In a hectic week for the Meridian Public School District, two elementary students have been suspended for bringing knives to school and more than a dozen students' cars were vandalized.
On Thursday, teachers at Parkview Elementary School discovered a small paring knife in a student's lunch box.
Kidd said she was unsure what grade the child is in or how the knife was discovered in the lunch box.
The incident comes after a student was discovered with a knife earlier this week at Poplar Springs Elementary and suspended, and a few weeks after another Parkview student was discovered with a knife and suspended.
Kidd said she is also unsure of the Poplar Springs student's grade level or how the discovery was made.
In recent months, several weapons have been confiscated at the city schools. In October, the MPS transferred two students to the Marion Park Alternative School for a weapons violation one for bringing a gun on campus and the other for carrying a knife.
Kidd says she doesn't believe the incidents is an indicator of a specific problem.
In an unrelated incident Meridian High football players, cheerleaders and band members returning from last week's game against Gulfport discovered more than a dozen cars parked in the MHS parking lot had been vandalized.
Attorney Rick Barry's son, Jay, had his car's window broken during the incident.
Ben Alexander is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail him at balexander@meridianstar.com.