CINCINNATI -- The video going around Facebook showing Taft High School students' items dumped on a locker room floor was the result of miscommunication, but the students are able to get their belongings back, according to Cincinnati Public Schools officials.
The Taft Senators played their final game at Stargel Stadium this past weekend, ahead of the stadium's demolition to make way for a new professional soccer stadium for FC Cincinnati. After the game, some of the students left their items in the locker room, as they're used to doing, apparently unaware that the lockers needed to be cleared out, according to district spokeswoman Lauren Worley.
She said the fact that students needed to remove their belongings after the game may not have been communicated well enough.
When CPS facilities workers showed up to clear out the locker rooms Monday, they moved numerous items from the lockers to the floor before realizing that students' personal items were still in there. Worley said they stopped then so that students could retrieve their belongings.
The video posted on Facebook by several people shows items strewn across the locker room floor as a narrator says, "They just treated us like trash."
Some of the students have already gotten their belongings out, Worley said. Others will still have the opportunity before workers continue clearing out the building.
Worley released the following statement:
"This past weekend, CPS Facilities began to prepare for demolition of Stargel Stadium.
"When District officials visited the locker room facilities on Sunday, some the equipment, uniforms and belongings were left out of lockers and on the floor. Not all students removed their personal belongings from the home locker room after the final game Saturday night.
"When workers arrived to the locker rooms on Monday morning, it was not immediately clear to workers that the items left on the floor and outside of lockers were personal belongings. It’s unclear whether all athletes and families were aware that the locker rooms would start to be cleared out on Monday; CPS regrets that miscommunication.
"When workers discovered they had mistakenly moved some personal belongings, they stopped moving until school officials were contacted.
"Taft IT High School is working with student athletes today to retrieve any remaining personal belongings from the locker room before the District finishes cleaning the facility.
"CPS regrets that some students' belongings may have been moved before they had a chance to retrieve them. Any miscommunication about timelines was a mistake.
"We're proud of the success of our student athletes at Taft and all of the athletic programs that have utilized Stargel Stadium over the years."
