School district ordered to halt transfers

TYLERTOWN — A judge has ordered a small Mississippi school district to end its practice of allowing hundreds of white students to transfer out of majority black schools, calling it a violation of a desegregation order and federal law.

U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee sided with the Justice Department in its complaint against the Walthall County School District.

The district’s schools in Tylertown are about 75 percent black with 730 students. The Salem Attendance Center is 65 percent white with about 650 students in grades K-12. Salem and the Tylertown schools are about 10 miles apart.

The Justice Department contended the school district had, for years, allowed hundreds of white students to transfer from Tylertown to Salem.