When a Cleveland Metropolitan School District student was shot and killed at a bus stop just outside John Adams High School earlier this year, outgoing Cleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon noted at the time that sometimes, students were waiting almost an hour for buses to pick them up.
Gordon had said the school district was working with a cross-agency team, with the city, police and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to improve busing and safety measures.
RTA spokesperson Robert Fleig said that since then, changes have been put into place at four different schools, including John Adams. He said the school district identified the four schools to prioritize first.
“The team focused on strategies to increase school safety and analyzed the unique situations at each school,” Fleig said.
At John Adams, RTA added an additional northbound #50 bus trip to pass by the school soon after dismissal time, to more quickly get students home.
The three other schools identified were John F. Kennedy High School, Garrett Morgan High School and John Marshall High School. Changes Fleig mentioned included the following:
- At John F. Kennedy, Fleig said RTA had already placed a “school trip” which increased the capacity and frequency of the #19 bus going west around school dismissal (during the school year only). He said the school has also become a “priority” for police attention.
- At Garrett Morgan, Fleig said the school is already on a bus line that has frequent service, but added that CMSD is considering “adjusting the dismissal time to 3:25 p.m.” to allow for more students to be disbursed quicker. Meanwhile, he said the school will also become a “priority” for police, and said the two police departments (the Greater Cleveland RTA and Cleveland Police) will collaborate, along with the CMSD Department of Safety and Security, to "increase visibility” at dismissal times with attention given to an old gas station across the street.
- Finally, he said policing and security will be increased at John Marshall, with special attention given to issues with “businesses near Lorain Avenue.” In addition, CMSD will provide school bus pick-up for the nearby Garfield Elementary School, meant to decrease the number of children in the area and “potential clashes” with others.
Fleig said these solutions will be “continuously evaluated” as the two police departments hold bi-weekly meetings with CMSD's Department of Safety and Security to remain on top of the school safety issues.
