By Billy Davis

North Panola Schools is required to keep students enrolled in the school district even if they fight on school grounds, the district’s state conservator said last week.

As many as 15 students, some of them victims, were involved in a fight last week at the high school, said Dr. Oscar Love.

If students under age 18 are not charged with a criminal act, even after fighting, they must remain enrolled in the school district’s alternative school, Love told The Panolian.

Panola Sheriff Otis Griffin said deputies gathered the names of 22 students who were involved in the January 18 fight that broke out in the high school cafeteria.

The Panola jail docket includes the names of five students, three males and two females, who face misdemeanor charges stemming from the fight.

The jail docket lists Bobby Frentrell Boyce, 18; Wayne O’Hara Miller, 18; Shanketa Deloise Arnold, 18; Carlos Lee Burton, 19; and Jaquentia T. Lawson, 18.

Boyce, Miller, Arnold and Burton are charged with disorderly conduct, failure to comply, and disturbance of a public school session.

Their cases will be heard in Panola County Justice Court.

Lawson is charged with disorderly conduct and will answer the charge in Sardis Municipal Court.

TV news crews from Memphis swooped into the school district last week, reporting on what Griffin called a “turf war” among students from Como, Sardis and Crenshaw.

Three of the five students facing charges are from Como. The other students are from Crenshaw and Sardis.

The fight was broken up without the use of pepper spray or a tasering device, and no deputies were injured, according to the sheriff.

News Channel 3 reported that one student was beaten with brass knuckles, though Love denied that any weapons had been used.

Griffin, asked about weapons, also said no weapons have been used.

The conservator said one student did require stitches after being attacked by other students.

To combat the fights, Love said the school district has transferred a school safety officer to North Panola High from Crenshaw, and deputies will also perform more drive-throughs at the school.

Love said he also instructed high school staff to “observe students properly” and to “be alert of intruders.”

Griffin said a school resource officer, a Panola sheriff’s deputy, is already assigned to the high school.

A fight between two students, which followed the Tuesday fight, was stopped by quick action of the school resource officer and school safety officer, the sheriff said.

Love said the public is likely unaware of the stay-in-school requirement, which he said is a state rule, and North Panola is being unfairly criticized for allowing the students to remain.

“We are trying to minimize the negative impact on the district,” he said.

Love said the state-run public school district is also operating under a second state mandate that bans corporal punishment — paddling — of unruly students.  

A request for comment from the Miss. Department of Education was not returned by press time Monday.