NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio — North College Hill City Schools is working with police to identify who participated in "riotous behavior" after police said a student walkout resulted in "disorderly conduct" at a local Kroger Wednesday afternoon.
Video footage shows students running through the Hamilton Avenue store, yelling and throwing items. McAdrian Martin, who filmed the incident, said the students stormed the alcohol section and grabbed beer cans.
"They was real loud. They was disrupting property, disrupting customers as I was checking out," Martin said. "Somebody threw a can on the ceiling so high that it damaged the ceiling. And also, one of the cans actually hit one of the customers on the head."
WATCH: High school students storm, disrupt North College Hill Kroger
The incident stemmed from a larger student walkout, during which upwards of 250 students — the majority of the student body — left the high school at 1:20 p.m. with signs to protest recent ICE enforcement operations across the country, according to the district and police.
Superintendent Eugene Blalock Jr. said district staff were caught off guard by the timing of the protest because they had expected the walkout to happen an hour later. He told us he was "disgusted" when he saw the video.
"My head just sunk and I just shook my head," Blalock said. "I was extremely, extremely upset, and I felt bad for my staff."
Blalock said that school staff neither organized nor encouraged the walkout, which was entirely student-led. District officials had received advance notice earlier in the week that students planned to protest and were prepared to handle the situation.
"We allowed those students to walk out, made sure the students who wanted to remain in school needed to get to class; those students who wanted to walk out, that was their right," Blalock said. "Once they walked out, we basically closed those doors."
Blalock said staff members were instructed not to discuss potential disciplinary consequences with students beforehand, instead telling them that activism comes with sacrifices and they needed to understand what they were protesting and why.
Students who left campus during the walkout were not allowed to return that day, even if they changed their minds about participating.
"One things that we said was, number one, we weren't standing by doors and blocking doors that students do have their First Amendment right to protest and if they wanted to walk out, then we would not impede that or stand in their way, but we would make arrangements for those students who didn't walk out and ... parents to contact them."
Students to face consequences
The North College Hill Police Department will review security footage from Kroger to identify students involved in the disturbance. Those identified will face both criminal charges and school disciplinary action.
"They will face consequences for that, not only from the police, but on our side, just our code of conduct," Blalock said.
Interim Police Chief Craig Chaney said in a letter to the North College Hill community that officers arrested two students who were part of the protest but were wanted for a separate incident. The department emphasized that while peaceful expression is a constitutional right, officers intervened when actions moved beyond peaceful expression and began affecting public safety and private property rights.
"I do feel as if everybody should be held accountable for their actions, no matter who you are. These are high school students. So I do feel as if whoever did what, whoever threw the bottle in the air, and just as a group, I feel as if everybody should be held accountable," Martin said. "Freedom of speech is free. You can do it freely, but also do it safely as well. I was really shook how they went about their freedom of speech, how they went into Kroger and they disrupted the customers and the property and just the environment."
Blalock said he has received numerous critical messages blaming the district for the incident, which he disputes. He used the situation to call for greater parental involvement in student behavior.
"Parents have to step up," Blalock said. "Until the parents start taking responsibility for the actions of their kids, this is going to be a repeated cycle where students act out."
Balock, who has worked in education for 32 years and lives in the North College Hill community, said the incident was particularly disappointing because it overshadowed positive developments in the district, including recognition for a board member and the basketball team's success.
"It's a black eye on our community," Blalock said. "We have so many positive things that we're doing."
The district conducted debriefing sessions with students Thursday morning to discuss the incident and its impact. Blalock said some students were taking the situation harder than adults because they genuinely wanted to do something positive.
"The actions of a few just totally threw that out the window," Blalock said. "And it made the whole movement, or what they were trying to do, go sour."
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