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An attack on a Vinton County High School freshman leaves family with questions for the district
By: Kaitlin Thorne
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VINTON COUNTY, Ohio (WOUB) – A freshman at Vinton County High School was treated for a concussion and other minor injuries after an attack by a fellow student during lunch on the fifth day of classes, leaving her father with a lot of questions for the school administration.
Bledsoe said his 15-year-old daughter, who is Black, was first approached in the morning outside near the school buses by a female student who called her a racial slur and attempted to provoke a fight. His daughter then walked away. A similar incident happened in the hallway between class periods. His daughter reported the incident to a teacher after the second confrontation.
Finally, during lunch, Bledsoe said his daughter was approached by the same student in the cafeteria. The student once again tried to incite a fight and Bledsoe’s daughter told her to “get out of her face and leave her alone.”
She then finished her lunch and went to the restroom, where she was allegedly followed by at least four female students who were recording on their phones. In the video obtained by WOUB, Bledsoe’s daughter is seen being attacked by a white student, at one point she is pinned to the floor.
Bledsoe said that despite his daughter reporting it, he only knew of the attack because she texted him. He immediately video-called her.
“I could see her face and instantly could see that she had been beaten,” Bledsoe said.
He told his daughter to put the principal on the phone but instead he spoke with Assistant Principal Josh Kirkpatrick.
“I told him I want everything documented. I want the resource officer called. This isn’t our first issue with racial issues and bullies harassing her,” Bledsoe said.
Bledsoe was out of town when his daughter was attacked, and had her aunt pick her up. She was taken to the Emergency Room where it was determined she had a concussion, a bone bruise on her nose and a cut lip.
“Like 37 times I called and they claimed their phones were out. Nobody picked up the phone for three hours of me driving,” Bledsoe said.
He said he didn’t receive any contact from the school until 9:45 a.m. the following day, when Principal JJ Milliken called him.
“I was pretty angry at how the whole thing broke down. He had no answers. He couldn’t give me nothing as to why everything happened, what happened, why nobody called,” Bledsoe said.
The following day, Bledsoe had a meeting with Superintendent Rick Brooks and Assistant Superintendent Teresa Snider, who handles bullying and harassment issues for the district.
Bledsoe said that his daughter has had harassment issues within the schools for the past three years and this was the first time he had met Snider. He wants to know why this is if she oversees these problems for the district.
In addition to last week’s fight, Bledsoe said his daughter has been subject to racist speech from other students. When she was in the seventh grade, he said a student sent his daughter’s photo with a racial slur written across to other students on SnapChat.
Further, Bledsoe said the fight wasn’t the first time that harassment turned physical for his daughter.
“They make fun of her hair, because she has ethnic hair. So we took her and spent $400 to have extensions put in, just cause it would make her feel better, and it wasn’t days later that they took scissors in class and cut her hair off.”
After that incident the district allegedly stated that it would be doing diversity training at the schools, but Bledsoe hasn’t seen any evidence of this taking place.
“They said they’d have somebody come in and talk to the classes about diversity, racism and hate and nothing was done, not one class was done,” Bledsoe said. “The only thing they did was the principal walked her from class to class for a week or so.”
A pattern in the district
With seemingly zero action on the district’s part to educate students further about diversity and bullying, Bledsoe said he believes it allows for further harassment to occur. He said this was the case this past week, when his daughter was harassed again at the school on Friday.
He said that his daughter was approached while the students were outside during a safety drill. She was threatened for getting the other students into trouble. She immediately reported the threat but Bledsoe was once again not notified by the school.
Several attempts to reach the school administration for comment were made. An official press release is the only comment that has been received.
“The Vinton County Local Schools and its administrators take all incidents that involve students very seriously, and we investigate those incidents thoroughly. Once facts are determined, discipline appropriate to the offense is issued as warranted. Discipline may include suspension and expulsion from school, suspension from extracurricular activities, and/or suspension from transportation,” the press release stated.
The district also stated that as the matter involved minors that it would not provide any additional details.
This isn’t the first time that Vinton County Local Schools have had a problem with harassment. In 2019, multiple students and an unapproved adult volunteer all faced charges after a 12-year-old wrestler was assaulted by several students.
The school district also seemingly has a history of poor communication with parents. Multiple parents commented on Bledsoe’s Facebook post about the incident, stating that they had similar experiences.
“We’ve had a lot of issues happen under the current superintendent Brooks. It’s the good ole boy system. Everything gets swept under the rug, nothing ever gets out,” Bledsoe said.
Lisa Jo Williams shared that in March 2022 her son, who is autistic, was punched in the back by another student, unprovoked. The attack was filmed and passed around by students. In the video, obtained by WOUB, you can hear the student filming encouraging the attacker saying “Do it.”
Williams said that she was not aware of the video until someone sent it to her a week later and that the district did not notify her of the attack or the video.
Following this attack, no official statements were given by the district, though it did share a link for the Safer Ohio School Tip Line on the district Facebook page in the days following the event. The Tip Line is an anonymous reporting system available to Ohio schools.
Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain said that charges were filed in the March attack and that the case was sent to the Vinton County Prosecutor’s Office. When reached for comment, the prosecutor’s office stated that it does not comment on any case involving a minor.
Cain also said that there is an open investigation into last week’s incident involving Bledsoe’s daughter.
“A physical altercation did occur at the schools,” Cain said. “They are investigating the incident and cannot determine at this time if it was racially motivated.”
Cain said that they will be subpoenaing the phones and social media accounts of those involved in the situation and have also requested the social media companies to store the account information of those involved to secure any SnapChat messages that may have disappeared per the function of the social media platform.
According to the sheriff’s office, it is unknown how long the investigation will take, but it could be a couple of months.
Cain said the incident is “embarrassing for the community” and that they are taking it seriously.
“It’s kind of a shock that we’re dealing with this in this day and age,” Cain said.
Accountability is the biggest thing that the Bledsoe family is looking for in this investigation.
“I want someone to take responsibility for what happened, why it happened, how it happened and how we can make sure it never happens again,” Bledsoe said.