Mississippi Schools’ Legal Tab Rises With Enrollment

DeSoto County schools are seeing an expensive side effect of rapid enrollment growth in recent years.

The Commercial Appeal reports the district spent $1.26 million for lawyers’ work between 2009 and 2011.

DeSoto County has the largest school district in Mississippi, with 32,311 students in 40 schools.

Superintendent Milton Kuykendall says large districts are big targets and must spend money defending themselves from lawsuits.

In August, the DeSoto schools had a legal battle with the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which successfully requested that the district stop prayers before football games over the public address system.

In February, the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and the DeSoto schools settled two lawsuits involving alleged gang activity after school system officials adopted a revised gang policy.