The Nation - News from March 5, 1985

A judge extended a largely ignored strike ban as walkouts in Mississippi by the nation’s lowest-paid teachers spread to three more counties, leaving 93,000 of the state’s 465,000 students without teachers. Chancellor Paul G. Alexander’s restraining order was a middle ground between state demands that he issue a preliminary injunction to open schools statewide and teacher claims that his court has no jurisdiction outside Hinds County, where he is the equivalent of a district judge. Alexander said that he intends to rule today that the teachers are public employees and have no right to strike under state law.