Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine meanwhile welcomed a campaign visit.
“A presidential campaign visit by one of the candidates is generally very, very welcome. They certainly have the right to be here,” DeWine said at the same event. “If any of the candidates come, they will be welcomed by the people of Springfield. I have to state the reality though, that resources are really stretched here, and that’s just a fact. We’re focused on getting kids to school and doing these things, and everybody’s kind of stretched. But, if President Trump makes the decision to come here, he will be welcome.”
Kids return to school
Amid a string of threats and an increase in police personnel in the district, Springfield City Schools and DeWine made a plea Tuesday for parents to return their kids to school, just hours after another unfounded threat was made against three schools in the city.
“I encourage our parents to please return your students to school,” Springfield City Schools Superintendent Bob Hill said at a city hall press conference, standing next to DeWine. “We have the resources. There may be more threats, this may not be over — but with the support of the governor ... our schools are open and ready to serve our highly impoverished population.”
Hill relayed that one of the district’s elementary schools had about 200 of its 500 students absent on Tuesday.
Clark State Community College and Wittenberg University remain in virtual learning this week, with athletic events also cancelled.
Threats against various school buildings, all found to have been hoaxes, interrupted classes in area schools for several days in a row amid a storm of political rhetoric surrounding Springfield’s estimated 15,000 Haitian immigrants who have settled in the city over recent years.
“Our attendance was down today,” Hill said Tuesday. “There is still a high level of fear due to these unfounded threats and hoaxes that have marred our existence, really, for going on a week now.”
Tuesday was the first day of an increased presence of Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers in Springfield schools to help provide security and quell fears within the district. Megan Short, a parent with children at Snowhill Elementary and at Springfield High School, said having officers at the school makes her feel her children are safe, but it’s still bittersweet.
“At first I was really happy about it because this means they’re putting our children’s safety first,” she said. “But it makes me sad that we have to get to this point that (OSHP) has to be here in the first place.”
Hill said Tuesday was the first close-to-normal day the district has had in a week. DeWine, who spoke at city hall after touring Springfield school buildings, assured parents that the district will have the support of state troopers for “as long as necessary.”
“We do not believe there is a real threat out there, but we are certainly not going to take any chances,” said DeWine.
DeWine repeated that all of the threats have been unfounded. The threats have targeted various Clark County institutions, including Springfield schools and Springfield City Hall, driver education programs and BMVs, plus Wittenberg and Clark State. State officials said the bulk of the threats have come from outside the country but has not provided details on their origins.
Updates on driver education
Ohio Department of Public Safety Director and former Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Andy Wilson updated the public on initiatives the state is working on to provide driver education to Springfield’s Haitian immigrant population, which the state has linked to an increase in car accidents in Clark County.
“The number one issue we have in the public safety space with the Haitians, it’s not crime, it’s not violence, it’s the driving,” Wilson said. “That’s the public safety issue.”
Wilson said local driving schools have developed a Creole-language driving curriculum, which the state expects will be rolled out in October.
“Now, we need to find leaders within the adult Haitian community to get people to come to those classes,” Wilson said.
He relayed that state has been reaching out to Springfield businesses that employ Haitians to try to target the population, noting that “business leaders understood the importance of their workforce being safe drivers, so they were very open to ideas.”
“What we want to do is get driver’s education to that population and incentivize them to take those classes,” Wilson said.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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