The Lincoln County School Board adopted the Mississippi State Department of Education’s new restraint and seclusion policy at its board meeting Monday.

Assistant Superintendent Letha Presley presented the policy to the board at the meeting.

“This policy is short notice because — it’s a restriction inclusion policy,” Presley said. “The state board adopted it in March and it came into effect in July.”

The policy was created after an incident in a state public school that resulted in the school and state department being sued, Presley said.

“We have to be trained for this policy,” Presley said. “The training is very expensive. It’s like $2,800 a person. We have to train so many people at each school. We had 10 people in mind to send to the class.”

Presley said that since policy was adopted on such short notice, the district needed a plan for the beginning of the school year.

“We’re not going to have everybody trained when school starts,” Presley said. “We decided that we would print out the policy, give it to the teachers and have them sign it, stating that they read it. That way I could have something in defense if an incident occurred.”

State law allows school staff to intercede in situations wherein students are displaying physically violent behavior or are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.  The state board restraint and seclusion policy positively prohibits the use of excessive force, or cruel and unusual punishment regarding student management.

The policy defines restraint and seclusion and outlines requirements for school districts, which include:

• Written local school board-approved policies and procedures that define appropriate means of restraint and seclusion to provide for a safe and orderly education. The policies and procedures apply to all students in the local school district and must not focus on one or more subgroups of students.

• School districts that permit restraint and seclusion must ensure that staff members are trained in the use of restraint.

• Each time a student is placed in restraint or seclusion, the incident must be documented in the student’s educational record and reported to the MDE and to the parents.

• After an incident of restraint and/or seclusion, all school personnel involved in the incident and appropriate administrative staff shall participate in a debriefing session for the purpose of planning to prevent or at least reduce the reoccurrence of the event.

In other board business:

• The board approved Superintendent Mickey Myers’ recommendation to terminate its contract with a grass cutting company and award a new contract to Walter Maxwell for $3,500 a month. The terminated company did not fulfill its side of the contract to cut the grass at all four school campuses, Myers said.

• Myers mentioned to the board that five acres has become available behind the Loyd Star Attendance Center football field, and that it might be wise to consider purchasing the land. He said he would have more information for the board at a later date.

• The board approved Director of Finance Sam Steward’s request to hire Kevin Garrett as a consultant.

• The board approved the Board of Trustee term of offices.

The board went into executive session for personnel matters. The next scheduled board meeting is Aug. 1 at 5 p.m.