CANFIELD — State Rep. Don Manning, R-New Middletown, is seeking advice from Attorney General Dave Yost about investigating whether the Canfield schools superintendent committed illegal acts by failing to report threats and other significant incidents to law enforcement.

Superintendent Alex Geordan has been under intense scrutiny after Canfield police and Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office investigations found he downplayed a Sept. 12 shooting threat investigation, and other incidents.

Reports indicated the superintendent misled families of the school district three times Sept. 13 when he issued an “all-call” message to them about the shooting threat a male student, 12, made to another sixth-grade student at the school the day before.

“I did not make a formal complaint to the attorney general’s office,” Manning said. “I had a text conversation with the attorney general last Thursday.”

Yost, according to Manning, does not have the authority to start an investigation without an official request from the local police or prosecutor’s office.

“I will reach out to those offices,” Manning said. “I would feel more comfortable if an outside entity looks at this.”

But based on the information that has been released by the sheriff’s office and Canfield police, Manning said Geordan should be replaced.

“Canfield is known to have a great school district,” Manning said. “This will damage its reputation.”

Efforts to reach Geordan through the district’s spokesperson were unsuccessful.

Both Canfield police and the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office earlier this month decided not to pursue criminal charges against Geordan or other members of the school district. But Canfield police stated: “Failing to notify, or delaying the notification to law enforcement impedes the ability to investigate such matters and potentially places the students, teachers, staff and community at risk.”

Last week, Canfield police provided details of 22 incidents dating back to 2012 to back up the claim that schools administration “has a history of failing to report serious threats and other significant incidents to law enforcement.”

Among the incidents was one Nov. 17, 2018, in which a “confidential source notified (a Canfield Police Department school resource officer) that a note was discovered at the middle school reading, ‘I want to kill my math teacher.’ The student was suspended from school and the (school resource officer) was never notified,” the report states.

An incident from Feb. 27, 2018, involved two students who “talked about doing a school shooting,” the report states. It was investigated by Canfield police, but a Canfield High School principal showed police a text message from Geordan “stating something to the effect of ‘it would be better if there is no police report.'”

The Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation would not confirm the existence of, or potential for, investigations, according to Steve Irwin, a department spokesman.

Manning said he is seeking an outside agency to conduct an investigation because parents are confused as to why there has been a police department investigation and nothing has been done.

“I was first informed about citizen concerns about this issue about six weeks ago when I went to a meeting of about 20 parents, the Canfield mayor and representatives of police department in a park in Canfield,” Manning said. “There was a full discussion among participants about what they knew, at the time, had been happening in the district. I think the sheriff’s department was just beginning its investigation.”

Manning has not spoken to anyone in the school district, and he has not met with members of the school board or the superintendent.

“My concern is the safety of children in the school district,” Manning said. “It appears the school district and the superintendent attempted the keep things hidden away even when there were criminal acts taking place.”

rsmith@tribtoday.com