Orders sought in juveniles’ disputes

Minors or their parents or guardians may seek protection orders against other minors accused of assaulting, stalking, menacing, committing domestic violence or a sexual offense against them. An order may be granted even if the juvenile has not been charged or convicted of the alleged offense. Petitioners don’t need a lawyer and must get an immediate hearing. No court fee is assessed.

Orders sought since June 2010:

Nearly 350 juvenile protection orders have been sought in Montgomery, Greene, Warren and Miami counties since a state law was passed two years ago, posing new challenges for area schools and families.

The statute, which took effect in June 2010, is named after Shynerra Grant, a 17-year-old Toledo girl who aspired to attend Wilberforce University before she was killed by a former boyfriend.

While the law aimed to prevent dating violence by making civil protection orders between minors available, a Dayton Daily News investigation has found that in Montgomery County they are being requested largely as a way to resolve disputes between youths of the same gender.

Of the 241 cases in Montgomery County, at least 82 involved disputes between girls while 50 cases have been between boys.

Girls sought protection orders against boys 46 times and boys sought them against girls 27 times, according to the data obtained from the four juvenile courts through a public records request.

The area juvenile court data, along with interviews, provide a glimpse into who is seeking the protection orders and why.

Among the newspaper’s findings:

• Most of the alleged offenders in Montgomery County are 16- and 17-year-olds, but 21 of them have been 12 or younger. The youngest was 9.

• In Miami County, parents are predominantly seeking the orders to protect their kids, which is common in the other counties as well.

• In Warren County, it’s not uncommon for juveniles who have orders issued against them to seek counter orders.

• And in Greene County — where most of the cases involve either assault or harassment — 20 of the 23 cases on file involve no-contact orders at schools.

Local judges said the cases address issues beyond bullying.

“I wouldn’t call them all bullying cases. There are some,’’ Montgomery County’s Administrative Juvenile Court Judge Nick Kuntz said. “The kids are not pursuing them as much as their parents are pursuing them.’’

A protection order may be granted even if the juvenile has not been charged or convicted of the alleged offense.

Kuntz, who estimated the requested orders are denied about 70 percent of the time in his county, said many of the hearings “end up being mediations” where the minors have a chance to work things out.

Very few hearings involve issuing an emergency order where a threat of imminent danger is seen, he noted.

‘A nightmare’

The parents of 14-year-old Kelsie Krahn of Miami Twp. felt an emergency order was needed to protect her after a male classmate allegedly stuck his hand down her shirt and under her bra on a school bus ride home in December.

Daniel and Michelle Brandmeyer pursued the case after Kelsie told them the same 13-year-old boy had been harassing her in the school hallway by putting his hands between her legs when she would try to drink from the water fountain. The boy’s parents could not be reached for comment.

Miami Twp. Police Detective Todd Comer said the boy has not been charged and the case remains under investigation.

The current protection order requires the two students to stay 50 feet apart at Miamisburg Middle School unless supervised, but the Brandmeyers don’t believe it’s being enforced the way it should be.

Kelsie said the boy still comes in close contact with her on a daily basis, mainly in the hallways and cafeteria. She said she fears him and told the school board recently she has been living “a nightmare.”

“Even though I have (the order), he’s always around,” Kelsie told the Daily News.

Michelle Brandmeyer said, “You would think a legal document would force their hand to follow it.”

Miamisburg City Schools Superintendent Greg Whitehead said school officials believe they have done “everything we possibly can to follow that protection order.”

Questions about enforcement

While the civil protection orders affect many school districts, some legal experts said schools are not responsible for enforcing them.

Hollie Reedy, chief legal counsel for the Ohio School Boards Association, said school officials should respect and accommodate the orders, but “it doesn’t mean they have to enforce them. The orders apply to the people named on the order.”

Warren County Juvenile Court Judge Mike Powell said, “The issuance of the civil protection order doesn’t place any responsibility on the school to see that the order is enforced.”

Miami County Juvenile Court Judge W. McGregor Dixon Jr. estimated a half dozen protection orders he has approved have included limited contact between students at school to provide direction for school officials.

“I think I put ‘no contact’ the first time and they said ‘we can’t do that.’ Well, they can’t,” Dixon said. “We are not trying to keep kids out of school. We want them educated so we have worked together.”

Dixon said he has no objection to the statute, noting, “It provides another means to intervene in cases where kids think they need protection.”

The law has made it relatively easy for people to seek the orders, and some judges question whether perhaps it may be too easy.

“I think we get a fairly significant percentage of the cases we have that ought to be resolved without court intervention,” Powell said.

In Greene County, the orders have impacted high schools in Xenia, Beavercreek, Fairborn and Greeneview and Yellow Springs, according to court data.

Greene County Juvenile Court Judge Robert Hutcheson said it is not surprising the vast majority of orders include prohibiting contact at school because “the school setting is the primary opportunity for juveniles to develop peer relationships,” both positive and negative.

Dan Von Handorf, principal of Fairmont High School in Kettering, said his school has only had to deal with “a couple of orders” between students so far.

“Generally speaking, when we talk to parents and kids we make sure those kids aren’t in the same classes together and we kind of route them during the day so they don’t have the same lunch or necessarily cross paths in the hallway,” Von Handorf said.

“We’re such a large school that it’s a lot easier to keep kids away from each other if you need to,” he said. “That would be more of a challenge at a smaller school.”

‘It’s a challenge’

At Miamisburg Middle School, disciplinary action was taken against the boy accused of groping Kelsie Krahn. School officials have declined to release details of the punishment because of student privacy.

Whitehead, the superintendent, said school officials also moved the boy to a different bus and put the two students on different eighth-grade teams, which means their classes are now on different floors.

“We have taken any means necessary that we can to ensure there is as little to no contact as possible and we’ve made changes trying not to interfere with the education of either child,” he said.

Still, Whitehead knows the Brandmeyers don’t think it is enough.

“I don’t believe it’s to the satisfaction of the parents, no,” he said, “but it’s a challenge to us at times.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2094 or mkissell@coxohio.com.