“Perception is a big thing,” Protsman said. “Obviously when you have a horrible event like we had last weekend, people are going to start talking about what’s going on. … If you have a couple of high-profile events like that, then in people’s eyes, it’s happening all the time. But it’s truly not.”
Kettering schools, and the city as a whole, had a long run of years with few major violent incidents. Before a stabbing at a halfway house last year, Kettering went eight years without an intentional homicide.
But that 2015 incident happened a block from a school. In February, Fairmont student Antoine Jones was shot in Trotwood in what police called a drug-related double homicide. Then last Sunday night, Bowers, a Fairmont junior, was shot and killed near a festival at Alter High School, by another Kettering student who police have not identified by name.
Social media comments from Fairmont students ranged from fear about going to school, to anger about classmates carrying guns, to suggestions that people were sensationalizing the issue without knowing the facts.
Noah Kihn, student body president at Fairmont, said he senses more worry from parents than students about safety. He acknowledged there’s always some risk, but he said he feels safe at school, and said student leadership has tried to convey a positive, supportive message.
“I don’t think most people are afraid,” Kihn said of students at the 2,300-student high school. “I think kids understand that as long as they’re staying (invovled) in good stuff, they’re mostly not going to have a problem. … (But) it’s a scary thing, and I understand why anybody could be nervous or worried.”
Crime statistics
Kettering reported a spike in robberies in 2015, causing the city’s “violent crime” number to hit 70 last year, up from the 50-to-55 range from 2012-14, according to city and FBI crime data.
Protsman shared 2016 year-to-date crime numbers last week that showed the city is on track to drop back into the 50s for incidents of violent crime (homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault). That number exceeded 90 in 2002 and 2004 and was regularly in the 60s and 70s until a dip in 2012.
Protsman said where Kettering crime numbers have risen significantly in 2016 are drug and weapons cases. He said that’s because of an intentional crackdown on drugs, including the corridors where they may move through the city. As of last week, Kettering has logged 875 narcotics offenses this year, well above the full-year totals for every year in the past decade.
“We decided to take a very proactive stance on drugs, particularly the heroin issue that’s going on, and to make it very clear that that is not going to be tolerated in this community,” Protsman said. “With drugs … comes the violence, comes the property crime, comes everything else. So that is definitely the center of what’s going on.”
Some residents have pointed to Section 8 housing as a crime problem, but Protsman said the city’s crime mapping doesn’t bear that out. He did say police are trying to gather all apartment managers in the city for a meeting on how they can work with police on drug and crime issues.
Community opinion
As Pat Strunk was watching her grandson practice football at Indian Riffle Park on Wednesday night, she said when it comes to safety, parenting is what should be the center of what’s going on.
“Not letting kids out of the house is not going to solve the problem. The bottom line is, parents need to take more responsibility for what their children are doing,” Strunk said. “My grandsons have phones. You don’t answer my text, guess what’s going to happen? I’m going to locate you on (my phone’s GPS), and I’m coming to get you.
“I’m one voice, but we need a lot of voices to come together.”
Corey Winstead, who was coaching the third-grade Grey football team, encouraged more families to push their children toward organized activities, pointing out the team-building and unity his players work on.
Cindy McCullough, who attended this week’s school board meeting, said she does worry for her children’s safety. Mike Shaneyfelt lives a few houses from where Bowers was shot and called the case “tragic” and “scary.” He echoed Strunk’s call for parents to know what’s going on in children’s lives, and added a call to make sure kids don’t have access to weapons in the home.
“It hits home pretty hard,” he said. “We want to know what happened, how it happened and how it can be avoided (in the future).”
Police are not releasing some details about the Bowers shooting, nor the dispute among other teens that may have led to the slaying. But Bruce Ludwig, a manager at the Poelking Woodman Lanes bowling center, said an attitude change is needed in tense situations.
“When I grew up, we’d have a fistfight and then become best friends and that was it,” Ludwig said, questioning why teens would even have a gun. “They want to kill each other over stupid stuff. … It’s a society problem.
“It seems like all they need is one altercation to cause a problem, and it doesn’t matter what color or race or anything else.”
Ludwig said his bowling center has been lucky to have very few incidents the past few years — they usually involve alcohol when they do occur — and has stopped hiring security officers they had some years ago.
School approach
Protsman and Kettering Schools Superintendent Scott Inskeep both mentioned the importance of good relationships, adding that the school district agreed to fund a third school resource officer position this year.
The SRO assigned full time at Fairmont — Officer Ed Drayton — walked in Monday’s Holiday at Home parade, calling out to students he knew.
Inskeep said the school district watches for “societal issues” such as drugs and violence that creep into schools and cause problems. Director of Student Services Dan Von Handorf said the school asks students to report concerns. Students also can communiate via “advisory” homerooms. Students have the same advisory teacher all four years.
“They really get to forge a relationship with those kids,” said Von Handorf, a former Fairmont principal. “It kind of becomes like a small family, and in a large high school, that’s really important.”
Fairmont senior Maggie Hampton said some teachers discussed the Bowers shooting early this week, but not all.
“I wish more of them would talk about it, so we can learn from it,” she said. “One teacher said we needed to learn how to be more kind to each other.”
‘A good town’
Dave Nogle, a 50-year resident and well-known Kettering supporter, said there’s a “little pod” of drugs and crime and violence in the community, but he was shocked by the shooting, saying the city is full of good kids.
“This is the kind of stuff you see in the movies, not the kind of stuff you fear in Kettering,” said Nogle, whose four children went to Kettering schools. “In the morning, you wake up and say, did that really happen here?”
Sadly, for the family of Ronnie Bowers, it did. Ronnie’s mother, Jessica Combs, talked Thursday about the pain of losing her son, but also her impression of the city.
“The law enforcement has been wonderful, and that’s why we moved to Kettering,” Combs said. “We like the Kettering police force. We like the schools. They have great schools. We like the community. We like the town. This is a good place to raise your kids.
“Despite my loss,” she said, choking back tears, “this is a good town.”
Reporters Katie Wedell, Nick Blizzard and Mike Campbell contributed to this report.
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