Meridian High teacher returns to classroom

By By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
Jan. 8, 2004
A Meridian High School chemistry teacher returned to the classroom on Monday after charges were dropped for possessing a firearm on educational property.
Ernest Smith, 75, turned himself in to Meridian police Sept. 12 after learning there was a warrant for his arrest. He was charged after he allegedly fired a gun Sept. 2 on a school campus.
Smith was suspended from his Meridian High teaching job.
School board attorney John Compton said Smith's case was presented to a grand jury in November and jurors did not indict him.
Meridian School Superintendent Sylvia Autry said that Smith called her before the Christmas break to tell her the charges had been dropped. She said the district complied with state law when it reinstated Smith.