District calls for investigation after neo-Nazi group ends up outside local school
LOCKLAND, Ohio (WKRC) - A new video released by the Lockland School District appears to show an Evendale police officer and a U-Haul of neo-Nazi demonstrators right next to a Lockland school, minutes before dismissal.
The group demonstrated on an I-75 overpass in Evendale, causing a community and police response.
The video apparently showed what happened after the demonstration. An officer is seen ahead of the U-Haul on South Cooper Court, right next to the Lockland Educational Annex. The police officer gets out of their cruiser, talks to the occupants of the U-Haul, then pulls off. The officer leaves about two minutes before the U-Haul turns around in the school parking lot and gets back on the highway.
"Not only were they here, they were here four minutes from the dismissal of every preschool through fourth-grade student that we serve in our school district," said Lockland Superintendent Bob Longworth.
Lockland Schools Superintendent Bob Longworth said that the district was aware of the incident in Evendale but had no idea they were in Lockland, let alone right outside their school.
"In the event that we knew that there was a dangerous situation on any of our campuses, specifically that day, we would have immediately locked down our campus," said Longworth.
Lockland Police Chief Michael Ott said that Evendale police never notified them that the group was in Lockland.
"Clearly, we would have notified the school if we had that information," Ott said.
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The Lockland School Board is now calling for an independent third-party review of the actions taken by both the Lockland and Evendale police departments' that afternoon.
"The safety and security of our students were both compromised last week as a result of this incident, and our board of education and I, as the superintendent, cannot take that lightly," Longworth said.
Chief Ott said that an after-action review is currently underway involving Lockland and Evendale police and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.
"We're working with all local law enforcement agencies just to fully investigate what happened so that we can work together to make sure something like that doesn't happen again," Chief Ott said.
Local 12 emailed Evendale Police Chief Tim Holloway and stopped by the police station on Thursday afternoon; we were told the chief was unavailable for comment.
