HPD changes course on releasing juvenile names

Hattiesburg Police Department has changed its policy and will now let Hattiesburg Public School District know if a juvenile has been arrested and charged as an adult.

The new policy comes after the district was left unaware that a 14-year-old ninth-grader had been charged as an adult for sexual battery of a child under the age of 14.

"The new policy that has been put into place with the Hattiesburg Police Department is that, if a juvenile is arrested for a crime and they are charged as an adult, we will contact Hattiesburg Public School District's (school) resource officers and advise them of that arrest," HPD spokesman Lt. Jon Traxler said in an email.

In the case of the ninth-grader charged as an adult, the district received knowledge of his arrest from a parent whose ninth-grade daughter had made friends with the student.

The ninth-grader had been arrested in April. The parent complained in August.

Superintendent James Bacchus said once the district knew about the student, it acted immediately.

"Once we found out, we took the appropriate action," he said. "It wasn't lack of action. It was lack of information."

District spokesman Jas N Smith would not say what action the district took because the matter is related to student discipline.

"We will continue the education for the student," Smith said. "The student may be served out of the alternative center or it may be the student is served at home by a homebound teacher or the student is provided materials for correspondence courses."

Traxler originally had said the police department was waiting to establish a policy on release of juvenile names with the Forrest County Youth Court Attorney. He said the department would not call every time a juvenile got arrested for any type of charge.

But Bacchus said, by law, the district was entitled to the names of juveniles charged as adults.

"We aren't going to make it public," he said. "But we have to take action."