Assaults, guns, sex offenses among ‘major incidents’ at Columbus schools

Columbus City Schools had a total 5,202 fights, assaults, sexual offenses, guns brought to school or other “major incidents” during the first three months of this school year.

Tops among the “major incident” reports at Columbus City Schools in the first three months of the 202223 school year were 3,389 fights and threats, according to public records requested by The Dispatch in December and recently released.

Columbus City Schools defines “major incidents” as any situation that requires support from an outside responding agency, such as the Columbus police and fire divisions, that occur at a school during the school day. It doesn’t include after-school fights, such as the one last October that resulted in the shooting death of Lovely Kendricks, an East High School student, during a fight in Franklin Park across from the school.

Districtwide from Aug. 29 to Nov. 30 there were 1,128 physical assaults; 188 incidents of sexual misconduct; 176 incidents of drug use, possession or sale; 163 incidents of vandalism; 95 incidents of dangerous weapons not including firearms, and 57 incidents of sexual offenses.

There also were 16 incidents of false alarms and bomb threats, 15 incidents of arson and explosives and seven incidents of alcoholic beverage use, possession or sale.

Numbers can be skewed by data system, district says

A spokesperson for Columbus City Schools, the state’s largest district with some 47,000 students, cautioned that the fight figures don’t necessarily mean there were more than 3,000 fights in the first months of school, because one fight could be counted in the district’s system three or four times as the disciplinary process goes on.

“I don’t know if that number is totally accurate if you are looking at just fights and threats,” said spokesperson Jacqueline Bryant. “One fight could have had multiple entries, so the system doesn’t break it down as just one (fight). … It’s not just counted as one.”

The district defines a threat as a verbal statement with intent to do harm, said Chris Baker, Columbus City Schools safety and security director.

Columbus City’s system lumps fights and threats together, so the district is unable to separate fights from threats, Baker said, meaning it’s unclear exactly how many fights the district had during the first three months of school.

“The way the system is set up, it’s a data input, and that’s how it goes,” Baker said. “We can’t sort through each document to break that out.”

When a fight happens at a school, the students will go through a hearing and due process, and then any disciplinary action will be determined, which could include a suspension or expulsion, Bryant said.

“One (fight) is too many for me,” Baker said. “If we have one threat, that’s one time too many that someone has made a verbal statement with the intent to do harm.”

Baker told The Dispatch he is unable to provide how many major incidents happened by individual school buildings at this time.

He said the district is working on getting more specific data about major incidents, including what day, time of day and where the incidents are occurring.

“Our goal is to ensure that each student that leaves home returns home safely unharmed, as well as the employees in our school district,” Baker said. “We need everyone to play their role and assist us with that because security is everyone’s responsibility.”

Nine cases of firearm use, possession and sale were reported among the major incidents during the first three months of this school year, and an incident last week at Eastmoor Academy in the East Side shows that problem has not gone away.

Columbus police were called to the school late Thursday morning after safety personnel and staff at the school detained a student for bringing a gun to school. The student escaped before police arrived, but left behind his backpack containing a loaded Glock 9mm semiautomatic pistol with a round in the chamber and a loaded magazine. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

District’s safety department

Matt Monjott, 41, the parent of a Whetstone High freshman, said his daughter tells him there are almost a dozen verbal fights at Whetstone every day that the safety specialists are able to de-escalate before any physical violence occurs.

Columbus City schools do not have school resource officers, but instead have 171 safety and security staff members, including 152 general fund positions and 32 elementary and secondary school positions funded through federal COVID relief funds. There were nearly 40 vacancies in those positions as of Monday.