CINCINNATI — Dohn Community High School Superintendent Ramone Davenport is disappointed Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge called out his school for not showing up to a youth violence meeting.
“I think it was something that just came out of left field first of all, and I think if she would have done her fact checks then that probably wouldn’t have been the statement that she said,” Davenport told WCPO 9.
Theetge called the school out on Tuesday in front of the Cincinnati City Council.
“They are burying their head in the sand. If they don't even want to come in and talk to us about how to solve this because this is affecting their students as well then shame on them. Shame on them for not being part of the solution,” she said.
Davenport said he never got a date or time about when the meeting was happening. If he did, Dohn would have been there.
“They sent out an email that I [saw] recently and Dohn Community High School was just one of the entities on the email, and we were waiting on the actual day and time of when the actual meeting was but we never received that,” he said. “Dohn did not represent that because we didn’t know. We didn’t just refuse not to go.”
He also said they’ve attended several meetings talking about downtown safety.
“They’ve had these town hall meetings. I guess that’s the name of them, and we’ve been at every single one of them,” he said.
Davenport said he’s been talking with city leaders since last June about downtown safety concerning Dohn students. The solution he came up with was buying 15 buses from Metro. The buses would drop the students off in their neighborhoods, not downtown.
“We had them for about two and a half months. Then, I received a letter from the Ohio Department of Education saying ‘hey, these buses are not legal to be on the street,’" he said.
The Department of Education & Workforce sent a letter to Davenport on Oct. 25 telling them to stop using the buses to transport students. The letter says in part:
“You are reminded that vehicles originally designed for more than nine passengers must be a “yellow school bus” and meet all Ohio construction and operation standards and laws if they are used for transportation of students,” to or from school or a school function.
Dohn’s buses are purple and don’t have a stop sign attached.
Senior Executive Director Carolyn Everidge-Frey wrote in the letter that each bus must be inspected by the Ohio State Highway Patrol and “issued an inspection decal indicating its construction, design and equipment comply with the regulations,” and all other provisions of the law.
“They all have been inspected from the Ohio State Patrol. All of our bus drivers have been scanned and they have credentials,” Davenport said.
Davenport said he received a lot of emails and phone calls from community members and police officers praising them for busing their students. He said their buses drop the students off at public spots, not the students' homes.
“We’re spending about $32,000 a month on bus passes, right. Ridiculous. When we’ve spent over $400,000 dollars on our own transportation,” Davenport said.
He said he’s working with an attorney on this issue in hopes the state will let them use their buses to transport students. If that doesn’t work he said they’ll have to go with another plan.
Davenport said he’s frustrated with the perception the community now has of Dohn.
“Any kind of personal conversations or any kind of things that Dohn Community High School is asked to come to, I don’t know if we’re willing to do that without a public apology,” he said.
He said he even asked Theetge if officers could come to their school and talk with the students.
"Her response to me is that we're not teachers," he said.
