‘Our patrons are afraid to walk into the library’

Editor’s note: The meeting between officials representing the city of Warren and Fitzgerald Public Schools was held Dec. 17, three days before Fitzgerald Superintendent Hollie Stange and Food Services Director Amanda Carroll were arrested for allegedly smoking marijuana near school grounds and driving while under the influence of drugs. While Stange was at the meeting, Carroll was not.

 

WARREN — It has been several weeks since the Warren Library Commission elected to close the Busch Branch of the Warren Public Library after school.

The decision to close from 2:15 p.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays was made amid reports of Fitzgerald High School students hanging outside the library, fighting or loitering, resulting in calls for police intervention.

According to Warren Police Deputy Commissioner Charles Rushton, police were called 111 times concerning students’ behavior in the past year to the Busch Branch, located at 23333 Ryan Road. The high school is located across the street at 23200 Ryan.

“I would say 30-35% are fights. Disorderly subjects probably account for another 30-35%. Disorderly subjects would be people acting up in the library causing disturbances and causing a problem to the library,” Rushton said. “Probably another 30-35% (is) trouble with juveniles to trespassing.”

On the evening of Dec. 17, officials from the city of Warren and Fitzgerald Public Schools met to discuss steps they could take to solve the problem and reopen the library. The meeting was held in the district’s Community Engagement Center of the Neigebaur Administration Building. The Warren Library Commission plans to keep the Busch Branch closed after school until Feb. 28, and then will take another look at the situation.

The problems began during the 2023-2024 school year when students were misbehaving inside the library. To curb that, Fitzgerald Superintendent Hollie Stange and city officials established a procedure in which students who used the library after school had to sign in and provide identification. That process worked until this school year when students began having physical altercations with each other and loitering outside the library after school hours. In addition to the library, city officials said the students are causing problems on the Great Oaks Academy campus, and also at Dairy Queen and Eddie’s Pizza, all located on Ryan Road.

Officials stressed they want the students to use the library and brought different ideas to the table to solve the fighting/loitering issue. Some at the meeting feel the students in question haven’t had to face any consequences for their behavior.

Last month’s meeting grew tense a few times, but in the end, officials felt community policing, reviewing video footage to identify the students who are fighting and enforcing the district’s student code of conduct are where they need to start to work on a solution to the problem.

“Not all students have been the problem,” said Mayor Lori Stone, adding that about 16-20 students have used the library properly.

 

‘We need to get the parents involved as far as I’m concerned’
Warren Library Director Oksana Urban wants the outdoor picnic tables removed.

“The chaos exists outside. There have been fights out there, and I found that the girls are more aggressive than the boys. I know one of our staff members tried to separate the girls in the library, and he got punched. His whole arm was black and blue. These girls jump each other, and the fight is on,” Urban said. “I think we have to remove the picnic tables because that’s where they are congregating. They’re standing on the tables. They’re play fighting with each other. They’re interacting in a negative way and it’s spreading to the other students. There’s profanity. It’s not acceptable. Our patrons are afraid to walk into the library.”

During the meeting, Rushton brought up what is known as a door-to-door policy in which educators of a school district can address student behavior to and from school instead of involving law enforcement. Stange said the district enforces a nexus policy, which is very similar and refers to the legal concept of determining whether a student’s off-campus behavior has a sufficient connection to the school, allowing the school to discipline them for that conduct.

“At the end of the day, we adhere to our student code of conduct. We have to legally step where we can legally step,” said Stange, adding she has “never been giving a list of names” of the students causing issues. “Maybe my SROs did, but that didn’t bubble up to me.”

The Fitzgerald Board of Education’s lawyer, Joseph Urban, feels part of the solution is for the district’s school resource officers to view the library’s video feed to identify students causing problems and discipline them via the district’s student code of conduct.

“The power of a student code of conduct isn’t punishment. The power of a student code of conduct is deterrence,” Stone interjected. “These are our standards. These are our expectations. These are what we hold ourselves to, and these are what we hold you to. And behaviors beyond this will not be tolerated.”

Joseph Urban also suggested school officials distribute “a very simple, very streamlined letter of understanding” that addresses the library issue and student code of conduct and email it to students and families and also share it with the media.

“One thing that’s been missing in those whole conversations, we missed the parents in this whole conversation,” Library Commission Chair Frank Pasternak said. “We need to get the parents involved as far as I’m concerned. These are their children. They’re causing a problem. They need to be aware of that problem and face the consequences as a result of that because they’re minors.”

At the meeting, new Warren Police Commissioner Eric Hawkins brought up the benefits of community policing. Community policing encourages interactive partnerships between law enforcement agencies and the residents they serve.

“I would support and enhance the community policing programs that we have in the city of Warren,” Hawkins said. “I think it could make a difference, and there are some things we can do as we move forward.”

The next Warren Library Commission meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Jan. 16 at the Warren Civic Center Library’s Mark Twain Room, located at 1 City Square, Suite 100.