Task force meeting is called a success
The next meeting will be in less than a week.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- Safety, respect, quality of education, supervision, dress-code enforcement and higher test scores were just some of issues members of the community want the newly formed school task force to address.
About 90 parents and concerned citizens packed the meeting room in Liberty High School for the task force's first meeting Tuesday night. The next task force meeting will be Monday.
The school board formed the task force to address myriad issues in the school district after a high school student told authorities she had been sexually assaulted in a school restroom. The girl said two male students, ages 15 and 16, forced her into a restroom, where she was assaulted.
Robert Lackey, school board member, said school officials, under Ohio law, were unable to give any information on what the school district was doing with the boys immediately after the reported assault. The boys, he said, had a right to due process before any information was released.
Boys suspended
Lackey told parents at Tuesday's meeting, however, that both boys had been suspended immediately after the allegation and have since been expelled for the maximum 80 days under Ohio law. The 16-year-old boy, he said, could be looking at a longer expulsion.
"If they are found guilty by the courts, and the courts notify the schools, there are ways to expel that student longer," he said.
Lackey told those in attendance that statistics on how Liberty schools rate academically and on safety issues in comparison to other schools would be forthcoming in the near future.
Alyssa Lenhoff Dann, school board member heading the task force, started the first meeting by drafting a statement of what the task force is to accomplish. Those in attendance offered numerous suggestions, which were ultimately boiled down to four categories: discipline, academics, safety and partnerships.
Parents, students, residents and school officials were asked to join one of the four subgroups most interesting to them. The subgroups will meet at the beginning of each task force meeting, then fuse together for collective discussion.
Safety-issue list
Capt. Richard Tisone of the Liberty Police Department said the school resource officer also has been instructed to compile a list of safety-related issues that need to be addressed in the high school. That list will be presented to the task force at a future meeting, he added.
Lenhoff Dann said the first meeting was a success. She is hopeful the group will find a way to address all the concerns mentioned by those at the meeting.
"These are tough issues here, but people asked questions and there was an open dialogue," she said.
jgoodwin@vindy.com