CINCINNATI — Just over one year after criticism fell on the school amid youth violence downtown, Dohn Community High School is closing and likely selling the building.
The CEO of the company that manages Dohn Community High School, William Geraghty said Friday the schools' board met for an executive session to discuss plans moving forward and to whom they'll sell the building.
Students at the school will finish up the school year, but after that Dohn Community High School will not re-open.
The school serves around 550 to 600 students, Geraghty said. He told WCPO they will have school fairs to help those students find new schools to attend.
Geraghty said this time last year the school's financial situation looked much different compared to previous years, which has prompted the closure.
"It's very hard, because we have such a dedicated staff who have gone up and beyond to make sure that our students are being taken care of," Geraghty said. "So to see them have to go through all of this, it hurts. To see what Dohn is and what our mission is and how we want to help our kids and help our community, it hurts to know that we're not going to be able to continue that."
Dohn was at the heart a year-long discussion following several large fights and altercations that happened downtown in 2024.
At the start of 2024, several videos surfaced of teens attacking individuals in Government Square and Fountain Square. Hundreds of teens were congregating in those areas after school, because that's where they can make an after-school bus transfer, and they have a four-hour window to do so.
Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge said most of the kids gathering there were CPS students.
She criticized Dohn Community High School officials for doing nothing about the youth violence happening downtown, but the school's superintendent said the school's students were forced to use Metro services.
The school tried to have its own transportation for students. It bought 15 purple buses from Metro in 2023, but the state deemed those vehicles were not up to standard to transport students, which forced kids back to Metro.
Now, Dohn's roghly 600 student population won't be attending the school in the fall at all. The school entered into an agreement with Performance Academies to remain in operation until the end of this school year.
Performance Academies is a charter school that already has a school in Mt. Healthy and is looking to expand; that school will instead occupy Dohn's building in the future.
