Senior changes schools for safety

Concerns about violence caused this student to leave Chaney High School.

YOUNGSTOWN — Gerri Sullivan said her daughter, Kelly, was a senior at Chaney High School this year and wanted to graduate from that school.

Both her father and an older brother are Chaney grads.

But violence in the school, some of it directed at Kelly, made the family decide to move her to another district, said Sullivan, a former member of the Youngstown Board of Education.

Kelly left Chaney in early November and is now enrolled at Fitch High School in Austintown and doing fine, her mother said. The family is paying about $25 a day in tuition charges but believes the expense is worth every dime, she said.

“We felt that her safety was compromised [at Chaney],” Sullivan said, adding that the family wasn’t satisfied with the school’s proposed resolution to an issue involving her daughter.

Kelly was the victim of what appeared to be a random act of misbehavior by another girl who was apparently walking around stabbing other students with a tack, Sullivan said, noting her daughter suffered a hand injury.

Her daughter felt “intimidated and resourceless,” Sullivan recalled, explaining that Kelly feared some form of retribution if she told authorities who had hurt her. The school’s proposed solution was to have Kelly go find someone in authority if she was threatened, and that wasn’t an acceptable resolution, Sullivan said.

It became a threatening environment for her, Sullivan said, noting, “She wanted to graduate from there” and was ranked 16th in her class academically.

Sullivan was critical of what she feels was a lack of sufficient “community building” leading up to the combining of Chaney and Wilson kids in one building.

Although the school district did hold programs for students well in advance to help ease the transition, perhaps the kids causing problems now weren’t interested in that process, she said.

Sullivan said she has heard that other parents are pulling their children out of Chaney as well, and officials at both Austintown and Ursuline High School have each reported recently getting two students from Chaney. Why those students chose to leave Chaney was not revealed.

A look at Chaney’s enrollment numbers would seem to indicate the loss of students is small.

The district reported the building had 1,228 students when the official attendance count was taken in October. A recent check showed 1,202 as of Jan. 7. Just how many students left because of concerns about violence — real or perceived — is uncertain.

The difference in numbers isn’t significant in a district with high student mobility, school officials have said.

Pete Lymber, one of three deans at Chaney, said he is aware that some students have left but he sees more kids coming in.

Chaney enrolled five new students within the last five days, he said Friday. Two were former Youngstown students who went elsewhere and have come back and three are students who have moved into the city from out of state, he said.