CINCINNATI — Dan Crowe is a regular commuter at the Oakley Transit Center. He said it's a comfortable routine, but there's one time of day when he doesn't want to be anywhere near the area. It's around 3:30 p.m. when Cincinnati Public Schools students get off the bus.
"Hundreds — there's gotta be at least 100 kids, at least. Probably 150, 200. They cross the street, jaywalk and stuff. It screws up traffic," Crowe told WCPO Thursday. "There's garbage left all over the place. You know, I blame it all on the kids, they're kids, but I'll put it this way — they have a security guard out here most of the time. People come out and watch. Like I said, it's a nut house."
Crowe said he's concerned about safety in the area, fearful that someone might soon get seriously hurt or killed. He said he's struggled to fit on the bus sometimes because they're so overcrowded with students, some of whom are being rowdy.
"Somebody's either going to get run over, or multiple, and then here, I haven't seen it but I know the way they get off the bus and stuff, there's going to be fights, if there haven't already been here," he said.
Police data shows there have been violent incidents. Between the start of the school year and the end of September, CPD responded to four incidents around Oakley Transit Center involving multiple students.
On Aug. 27, an officer called for assistance after a group of students "would not leave" the Cinemark movie theater. On Sept. 9, CPD noted a brawl and other offenses at Oakley Station. Six juveniles were involved, all of them ID'd as CPS students.
One day later, CPD reported an aggravated assault at Oakley Station involving 15 juveniles. One was ID'd as a CPS student.
On Sept.19, businesses sheltered in place at Oakley Station after shots were fired amid "a mass brawl and chaos."
Overall, from the start of the school year to the end of September, CPD reported 30 juveniles were arrested in 70 incidents between all four major transit centers in the city.
Several businesses in the area have taken steps to push students out. A sign posted on the door of Chick-fil-A reads that the restaurant no longer allows anyone under 18 to dine inside or on the patio if they are not accompanied by an adult. Minors are still allowed to order carryout.
The restrooms are only accessible to paying customers.
"For your safety and ours, any violation of store policy will result in immediate notification to the Cincinnati Police Department," the sign reads.
The store manager told WCPO he's tried to have conversations with teens, but they refuse to cooperate. One day, a fight broke out between a group of more than two dozen teens inside the dining room, he said.
The issues have allegedly spilled over into the Raising Canes across the street. An employee told WCPO corporate policy does not allow them to prohibit minors from entering the restaurant, but management has installed keypad locks on the bathrooms to keep students out.
The employee said the owner contracts with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office to have a deputy work security every day. If students are hanging out inside the store and not eating, the deputy will tell them to leave.
That same employee shared a video he took in September 2023 of a mass fight between students at the transit center. Though not filmed during this current school year, the employee said it depicts what commonly plagues the area.
"I'd be very nervous if I worked over there and you've got like 15 kids walking at one time," Crowe said. "What are you going to do?"
CPS Board President Eve Bolton said more needs to be done to address the issues at Oakley Transit Center and others in the city's neighborhood business districts.
Bolton sat down with WCPO Thursday to discuss possible solutions.
To cut $9 million from its budget deficit, CPS opted to forgo its use of yellow buses and instead rely solely on Metro buses.That resulted in nearly 3,000 seventh and eighth grade students riding public transportation, bringing the total number of CPS Metro riders to more than 9,000 this school year.
"That has been problematic," she said. "It's something we brought up ... a year ago," she said. "Everybody was really focused on downtown but there's a tremendous effort by our business districts to make sure that somehow we can mitigate some of the problems of having hundreds of kids being released at the same time."
Up until three years ago, high school students who rode the bus were put on Metro's "extra routes." They were also available to the public, but mostly ridden by students, offering more streamlined commutes to and from school.
"They had limited time to get done at school, to get to their locker, get out and get on those buses and those buses took them home just as they took them to school in the morning. That we don't have anymore," Bolton said.
Metro can no longer afford to sustain the additional routes. The missing service is at the core of the problem, Bolton said.
"In lieu of going back to that system, you're going to have dozens of dozens of kids dismissed, and nobody has to tell teachers or people who have spent their time in education that yeah, it's pretty amazing, overwhelming thing. But we've been talking out this from the get-go," Bolton said.
Bolton said the district's hands are tied and staff cannot be everywhere at once. School officials cannot man transit centers because they just also monitor students who remain on school campuses for extracurricular activities.
While the city rallies to send volunteers and fund programs at Government Square, Bolton said she hopes focus can also be given to the other transit centers. She said she believes violent incidents have decreased since the start of the school year, but that an end-all solution has yet to be found.
"I think people are mitigating the problems as best as we can but the problem we can't handle is simply the volume at dismissal," said Bolton.
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