Groveport Madison school considers safety after fight

“I reassured the parents that I am a resident of this community. (We offered) reassurance to them that we have their children’s best interests at heart and that safety is paramount.”

A morning fight at Groveport Madison High School late last month became a social-media sensation, worried parents and ultimately led to a meeting about school safety.

The fight stemmed from a Halloween party in Columbus the weekend before, Superintendent Garilee Ogden said.

“The tension started there,” she said. The mother of one of the students involved worried that there was going to be a fight and let the school know.

“All of our staff was on alert,” Ogden said.

About 9:15 a.m. during class Oct. 29, two girls started fighting in the school’s rotunda. Four others got involved. Ogden said the fight lasted 18 seconds.

Some students tried to break it up while others cheered on the combatants. Some took photos and recorded videos. At least one of those videos was posted on social media.

After that, parents pulled out 300 of the school’s 1,829 students, Ogden said. A rumor circulated that there was a gun at school. After two hours of searching, none was found. Ogden said a photo revealed a student holding sunglasses, not a gun. Madison Township Police Chief Gary York

Two boys, 14 and 15, were taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct, Groveport Police Chief Ralph Portier said. Seven of his officers responded to the fight, along with seven officers from the Madison Township police, Obetz police and Franklin County sheriff’s office. The high school also has a school resource officer. Madison Township Police Chief Gary York said the call went out to police at 9:20 a.m. and they were on the scene within three minutes.

On Thursday night, Ogden, Portier, York and others talked to about 100 parents who were concerned about what happened.

“I reassured the parents that I am a resident of this community,” said York, a Groveport Madison graduate. “(We offered) reassurance to them that we have their children’s best interests at heart and that safety is paramount.”

Ogden said the school has 79 cameras and has had far fewer discipline referrals so far this year versus last year for actions ranging from tardiness to

assaults.

From the beginning of the school year through Nov. 8, there were 282 referrals. Through the same period in 2017 there were 699.

Groveport City Council President Shawn Cleary attended the meeting and said he believes school officials.

“Obviously, you’re not going to please everybody,” he said of parents who believed they weren’t getting enough answers to what happened.

Cleary said he volunteered to be on a safety committee formed after the incident. “The city will do everything to provide everything we can,” he said.

York said he remembers fights at Groveport Madison when he was there in 1983.

“What we have different now are cellphones and social media,” he said.

Portier went to Cambridge High School in Eastern Ohio.

“I grew up in the ‘60s,” Portier said. “We had fights.”