Boardman parent seeks facts

By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK

and Ashley Luthern

news@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

A parent of three children in the school district asked the board of education to substantiate or refute rumors he’d heard about a serious fight at Boardman High School, along with rumors about other incidents.

“I came to the board to find out if I can get any kind of hard facts about them,” John Ams said Monday. His children are 12, 7 and 5. He said he was not an eyewitness to the events.

“As a parent, I’m concerned about what this school is going to be like when my children are there,” he said.

Superintendent Frank Lazzeri said he could not give specifics about punishments. “But a lot of what you’ve said is not factual,” Lazzeri said.

Ams said, “That’s why I came here tonight. I wanted to make sure, because it did sound outrageous.”

After the meeting, Lazzeri said, “There was a disturbance in the cafeteria. But it was just the opposite of what he had portrayed; he really had it wrong.”

Ams had been told a girl was attacked by four boys.

The incident is being dealt with, Lazzeri said, but declined to be more specific.

“I will tell you that this all got started over an inappropriate tweet that took place off school grounds on a non-school day, and that brought everything to where it is,” he said. “Where there was a disturbance in the cafeteria, and a disturbance on the bus as a result of the disturbance in the cafeteria.”

Boardman police said there also was a fight on a school bus Thursday, and the incident led to two teenage girls — sisters who were not involved in the original fight — being charged with obstructing official business and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.

Police were called to a bus near the corner of Market Street and Meadowbrook Avenue about 3:15 p.m. Thursday.

The bus driver told officers two students fought with another student about seating on the bus, and that the student who was attacked did not fight back but “sat there and took it,” according to police reports.

While police were taking statements from the three students involved in that incident, officers asked a 16-year-old teenage girl sitting in the back of the bus to stop shouting profanities. When she refused several orders to stop and continued swearing at officers, the teen was arrested, records show.

Her 17-year-old sister then began shouting profanities at the officers who told her several times to calm down. Officers began to escort her off the bus when the teen pulled her arm away, shouting, police said.

The teen tried to walk away and officers subdued her on the ground, handcuffing her, and she also was charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor, reports stated.

Detectives still are investigating the original incident on the bus and as of Monday, no charges had been filed.

Lazzeri said Monday he was aware of the fight on the bus and that he couldn’t go into specifics about the students’ discipline.

An anti-bullying program for middle school and high school students, teachers and parents is planned for Feb. 6. The Vindicator is one of the program’s sponsors.