Rape prompts Campbell board to consider busing

By Jeanne Starmack

CAMPBELL — The kidnapping and rape of a 15-year-old girl who was on her way to school has the school board considering busing for high school students.

The school district hasn’t had busing for high school students since the mid-1970s, said Superintendent Thomas Robey.

He said busing has been considered before in relation to attendance and tardiness, not so much safety.

“But this incident bubbled it right to the top, and we have to look at it more carefully,” he said at the school board’s Tuesday meeting.

The girl, a sophomore at Campbell Memorial High School, was kidnapped and raped in a vacant house around 7 a.m. Oct. 12.

Charles E. Hudson, 55, a homeless man, has been charged with the crime.

The girl said he grabbed her, put a knife to her throat and led her through yards to an abandoned house on Gordon Avenue where he raped her. She picked him out of a photo lineup later in the day.

The abduction occurred on Tremble Avenue at 13th Street, a few streets away from the girl’s home.

Police estimated the girl’s walk to school at a mile and a half. “I feel bad for that little girl,” said Diana Petruska, a Tremble Avenue resident.

“I hope the board would look into busing,” she continued. “I know money’s tight, but I just feel so bad for that girl.”

“We are taking a look at it — checking into costs,” said board president James Cioffi.

The district buses preschool through eighth-grade students, special-education students and vocationa-education students now, said Robey.

State law mandates busing for pupils in the lower grades who live farther than two miles away. It does not mandate busing for high school students at all.

Board member Karen Repasky said she was an advocate for busing before.

She said weather affects walkers’ tardiness. “When the wind-chill factor is minus-20, I might wait till it warms up, too,” she said.

High school nurse Mirta Arrowsmith said she believes busing would allow more time for breakfast, either at home or at school.

“Kids aren’t eating,” she said.

Board member Tony Kelly said he would like to see busing but doesn’t believe it would have changed the girl’s situation the morning of the rape.

“Whether she was waiting for a bus at that corner or walking, she would have been in danger,” he said.

He suggested considering other ideas such as crossing guards or encouraging kids to walk together.

“I don’t know what the answer is,” he added.

Robey said the school board has asked him to review the district’s busing policy. He said he will prepare information for the board’s next meeting Nov. 17.

“The situation that brought this about is a tragedy,” he said. The school district has a social worker and a guidance counselor working closely with the kids, he said. “We continue to do that.”

Hudson’s preliminary hearing was Tuesday in Campbell municipal court. He is charged with felony rape and felony kidnapping, and his case was bound over to the Mahoning County grand jury.

He has been in the Mahoning County jail since shortly after his arrest Oct. 12 on $50,000 bond, or 10 percent of $500,000.

His bond was reduced Tuesday to $25,000, or 10 percent of $250,000, Campbell clerk of courts’ office said.

He did not post bond after the hearing, the clerk of courts said.