Student fights at Columbus schools prompt calls for district action by Far South Side parents

Bruce Miller scrolled through messages on his cellphone, stopping at a short video sent to him by a parent.

The video depicted an incident during the first days of the school year, with one boy cowering on the ground, trying to protect himself from another boy who was kicking him repeatedly.

“This is literally the front door of Marion-Franklin High School,” Miller said.

Footage of such fights at the school on Koebel Road on the South Side, at Buckeye Middle School on Parsons Avenue and at other Columbus City Schools have been surfacing online regularly this school year.

“I stopped counting at 64 videos,” Miller said.

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And that’s part of the reason Miller, a Far South Columbus Area commissioner-elect, and others gathered Tuesday night at the Scioto Southland Community Center. Many are tired of the violence, of the continuing posting on social media of student fights and other destructive behavior, and of school officials they say aren’t doing enough to put a stop to the bad behavior.

'What are you doing to protect our children?'

“Our children are not feeling heard, and they certainly aren’t feeling safe,” said Becky Walcott, a Far South Columbus Area commissioner. “We, as parents, are frustrated.”

About 50 people, many parents or grandparents of children who attend Columbus City Schools, spoke for more than an hour, recounting fights they’ve witnessed and frustrating conversations they’ve had with school administrators. Why, parents asked, are kids who are readily identifiable in fight videos not being expelled by the school district?

“What are you doing to protect our children?” said Lynnette Williams, whose granddaughter attends Independence High School in the Eastland Area. “What is (the Columbus City Schools) staff doing to protect our children? This is out of control. If you know that they’re texting and they’ve got this app… you can see what’s going on. Why isn’t the principal or the assistant principal taking that child out of school or out of the classroom and expelling them?”

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Chris Nicholson has worked security at Independence High on Refugee Road on the Southeast Side for about three years. His first year on the job, he said, there might have been five violent incidents.

This school year alone, he said, there have been more than 20.

“About three or four times a week, it seems,” Nicholson said. “Some of us (in security) have gotten hurt. All of us probably have nicks and bruises (from breaking up fights).”

And Nicholson said every moment he and other security guards, teachers and school staff spend clamping down on student fights and disturbances is another moment of lost learning.

“The time that we’re spending dealing with the foolishness in the schools, as far as fights or kids smoking weed in the restrooms, I feel that the kids that are going to school to do the right things, their time is being neglected,” he said. “Because the teachers have to constantly stop the class, call security or remove a kid from the classroom.”

In an emailed statement Tuesday evening to The Dispatch, Jacqueline Bryant, spokeswoman for Columbus City Schools, said the district is “committed to working with civic leaders and the community to address the issue of youth violence. We are not alone, as districts across the state and nationwide have also been grappling with this challenge.”

Bryant added that fighting in schools "requires local solutions, which is why these conversations are so critical. We also need to engage our young people to understand the root cause of the problem and develop solutions that are student-led. We look forward to working with our community and our students to understand and address these issues.”

Columbus police event summaries obtained by The Dispatch show that between Sept. 5 and Nov. 11 police were called to Marion-Franklin High School a total of 26 times, including for a half-dozen reported disturbances, two fights, several incidents involving shots fired, a person alleged to have a firearm at 2:42 p.m. on Nov. 11, and several domestic disputes.

However, the records show that 12 of the 26 calls were made after 4 p.m., including two runs involving reported firearms that came into dispatchers after 8 p.m. — not during the normal school day.

At Buckeye Middle School on Parsons Avenue, east of South High Street, there were close to 50 police calls between September and Tuesday morning, police records show. Only four of the 47 calls from the middle school since September have come after 4 p.m. There have been 19 calls in November, including a report of a fight outside the school on Nov. 9, a report of a suicide attempt on Nov. 19 and several complaints of an unknown nature. A 911 hang-up call was reported at 10:23 a.m. Tuesday, police records show.

Calls for parents to be more involved, held accountable for student violence

There was broad agreement Tuesday night — and occasional ovations —when attendees urged more parental involvement and accountability for kids’ actions.

“A lot of people say, 'Well, the kids have been out of school for over 18 months because of COVID.' But that doesn’t negate the fact that you know to keep your hands to yourself,” Nicholson said.

The problems aren’t going away on their own either, with affordable housing and other residential projects in the works. More than 450 new single and multi-family units are being constructed in the vicinity, which are slated for occupation in the next few years. That means more kids for school buildings that are already busing kids elsewhere in the district due to staffing and other issues, Miller said.

“Where are we going to educate these kids?” he asked.

Most people in attendance also raised their hands when asked if they thought the number of security guards in Columbus City Schools should be increased and if they thought Columbus police resources officers should be stationed in some schools.

Sheila Eubanks, chairwoman of the Marion Franklin Area Civic Association and an organizers of Tuesday night’s meeting, said a steering committee is being formed to further develop ideas to address student violence and other issues, with an eye toward building a coalition involving parents, community members, schools, Columbus City Council, the city’s parks and recreation department and others.

“We are going to brainstorm,” Miller said. “We have some ideas that we are going to discuss. We’re going to ask the community for their ideas, then take them to the schools, take them back to Council President (Shannon) Hardin, take them back to Parks and Rec, and try to develop a different approach.”

One idea suggested was an extension of the type of after-school programming already in place at the Scioto Southland Community Center, where students receive help with homework and access to other activities. There could be roles there and at other community centers for university students at other community centers studying to become teachers or trade groups to pique teens’ career interests.

“A lot of parents are working multiples jobs, just because of the way the economy is,” Miller said. “Let’s see if we can get them some help. … Child care, because of COVID, has been disrupted. A lot of things, because of COVID, have been disrupted.”

Dispatch reporters Bethany Bruner and Megan Henry contributed to this story.

mkovac@dispatch.com

@OhioCapitalBlog

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Student fights lead Columbus parents to demand school district action