Last week the Mississippi State Board of Education passed a policy that will make graduating easier for students displaced by a federally or nationally declared natural disaster.
While this paper has been openly critical of the lackluster standards required to graduate in Mississippi, and rightfully so, this particular policy is a home run in my eyes.
You see, I know exactly what it’s like to be in the shoes of such students. When Hurricane Katrina, the Category 5 hurricane with wind speeds up to 175 miles per hour, ravaged the South, I was a sixth-grade student that had my entire world flipped upside down. I was living in Slidell, La., which was at the very center of where the storm made landfall, and my family and I packed up our bags and evacuated to Memphis to stay with family friends.
We had no idea how severe the damage was going to be or how long we were going to be away from our home. Days after Katrina hit, we were informed by a family friend that our house was OK, but there was no power and the water was far from safe. Slidell Junior High, my school at the time, was not nearly as lucky as my home.
Flood waters were rampant through that part of town, and the water level inside the school reached six feet. When I eventually returned to the school, you could still the line on the wall throughout the entire school of where the dormant water remained for weeks. Needless to say, we were refugees in Memphis for a while. As a result, my parents decided to enroll my siblings and me in school until we could return home.
I remember how terrified I was to go to a new school. It wasn’t because I didn’t know anybody. No. It was because the school didn’t have uniforms, and I had only packed three shirts and a couple pairs of shorts. When you’re in the sixth-grade, those silly things matter. I dreaded being the new kid who wore the same exact clothes at least twice a week.
I was far less concerned about keeping my grades up at Appling Middle School than I was with what I had to wear every day. Beyond the clothes, I had no idea how any of my friends were, how their homes held up or if I was ever going to go back to my hometown. Trying to pay attention in school or completing my homework were the last things on my mind while the only life I knew was hanging in the balance 400 miles south.
Which is why catering to students who are displaced and have had their lives uprooted is a big win for the state. The policy states, “In situations where students are displaced from other states, territories, or countries due to a federally or nationally declared natural disaster and have been unsuccessful in meeting the Mississippi graduation requirements, the State Superintendent of Public Education shall have the authority to allow these displaced students to graduate from a Mississippi public school if certain criteria are met as described below.
“The State Superintendent of Public Education may grant the Mississippi school district in which the student is enrolled as a senior the authority to collaborate with school officials from the student’s home state, territory, or country to determine the procedures and requirements (i.e., assessment and course requirements) for awarding a diploma to eligible students.”
Students who have been through the absolute worst are likely to be far less concerned about maintaining their school standards than they are the lives they left behind. It’s easy as an adult to say that they shouldn’t change their priorities when academics are such a big deal, but when you’ve lived it it’s a lot easier to sympathize. I was in gifted classes with all A’s and knew how important school was, but when I started school in Memphis I had absolutely zero motivation to maintain those standards.
It’s encouraging to see the state board recognize the hardships these such students will face and step up to the plate to lend a helping hand to keep them from getting off track.
Reach Joshua Campbell via email at joshuacampbell@columbianprogress.com.
