NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio — North College Hill City Schools Superintendent Eugene Blalock Jr. took to the district's social media page Wednesday evening, saying he felt "frustrated and powerless" after he watched parents encourage a group of students to fight one another.
Blalock wrote that at around 3:50 p.m. on Wednesday, he looked out his office window and saw a large group of students and a parent talking and gesturing up the street, where another group of students and adults were waiting near the corner of Savannah and Dallas.
When Blalock got to the corner, he said he saw two parents encouraging the students to fight.
"I witnessed two boys viciously fight one another, with other students getting physically involved," wrote Blalock.
Hear more about the fight that Blalock saw in the video below:
We caught up with Blalock on Thursday morning to talk about what he saw.
"It's disappointing, it's disheartening," Blalock said.
Blalock said it's especially disheartening that adults were instigating the fight.
"The parents were like 'C'mon, let him go!' 'No, no, y'all can fight right here. Y'all can fight right here,'" Blalock said.
Blalock said that's unacceptable. He said he and his staff work with kids to resolve their conflicts with words.
"Now the disconnect is when they go home and they see or they hear their parents saying, 'Hey, it's OK to fight,'" Blalock said.
WCPO 9 News confirmed with the North College Hill Police Department that they are investigating what happened. Police did not give any further information on the investigation, but said we can expect their report by the end of the week.
Blalock said events like this are draining. He said there's only so much that school leaders, police and city leaders can do to prevent situations like this from happening.
"It starts at home," Blalock said. "The schools are tapped out. We are doing everything possible to keep our students safe when they're in our buildings."
He said he's aware of the students involved and they're being disciplined by the school.
Parents like Erica Black-Johnson agree with Blalock and said that parents need to be better.
"That's part of the issue, like he said, it starts at home," Black-Johnson said.
Her son goes to North College Hill High School. She said she recently started a group where parents can talk about the best ways to teach their kids how to avoid violent conflicts after her son was jumped by other students in school last year.
Black-Johnson said she feels, if the school wants to resolve this, then those involved in the fight should all come to the table to talk about it.
"Please require them to come in to do some kind of mediation," Black-Johnson said.
Black-Johnson said she understands that isn't always going to happen, but if things can't be resolved through conversation, then the consequences need to be severe for everyone involved.
"Fines, criminal, whatever the escalation needs to be to get these parents to wake up," Black-Johnson said. "Wake up, because they really need to wake up."
In his online letter, Blalock also wrote that parents needed to step up, because police, schools and community members cannot help the students alone.
"I am beside myself," wrote Blalock.
Blalock said many community members in North College Hill have spoken up, asking how they can help the district's students and he appreciated all the positive things posted online.
You can read Blalock's original Facebook post below:
