Cincinnati Public School leaders and community members met on Tuesday night to address recent violent incidents involving students near CPS schools and at city transit centers.
Although youth crime is down across the city, Cincinnati Police say there’s been a spike in student-involved violent incidents with police at four city transit centers – Government Square, Oakley Station, Northside Transit Center, and Glenway Crossing. Additionally, in the weeks following a school shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia that killed two students and two teachers, CPS says it’s received threats at several of its school buildings.
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The uptick in violence at these locations prompted Police Chief Teresa Theetge to criticize the district’s school board last week for not doing enough to prevent these incidents. She then asked district leaders to come up with solutions.
At the district’s central office, community activists, parents, and educators said the roots of the violence are easy access to weapons and a lack of stability in students’ lives outside of the classroom.
Some who spoke at the meeting offered ideas to fix the lack of engagement by reaching out to students and their parents to address issues like mental health and poverty. Others also suggested the school district build stronger relationships with community groups that focus on youth safety to prevent violent incidents before they start.
Zandorsia Montford, a volunteer who supervises students after school at Government Square says the blame can’t just be on students and their families. He says students he interacts with are often frustrated with their circumstances and feel ignored by many adults they come across which leads them to act out as a call for help.
“They’re not just kids coming in with trouble. These kids have generational trauma that needs to be dealt with. They have issues in their houses, they have issues in school,” He told WVXU. “Every time that they speak. Nobody’s listening to them.”
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Montford says he’s seen students struggle with food instability and poor conditions in their neighborhoods which drives them away from their homes and encourages them to spend their time elsewhere, like Government Square downtown. Instead of viewing them as troublemakers, he says city leaders and law enforcement should focus their efforts on strengthening Cincinnati’s neighborhoods and making youth centers more appealing to today’s youth.
“They’re just kids and most of them not really doing nothing. They have fights and all that sometimes. We had fights when we was little. But they have nowhere to go. The most exciting, most wonderful thing for them is downtown. Where is it for them to go? You want them to go into the community where Hell’s going on and all that or you want them downtown just trying to enjoy themselves and be kids?” Montford said.
Superintendent Shauna Murphy says those who attended the meeting brought several good ideas to the table and the district is considering all options. Still, she says she wants to see more parents involved in the conversation. She says another community conversation is planned for Nov. 1.
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