DAYTON — Dayton Metro Library leaders will not change their open-door policies after another fight briefly closed the main library downtown on Wednesday.
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Just this year, News Center 7 has covered two major fights at the Dayton Metro Library or a branch library. Both fights involved dozens of high school-age students.
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The latest incident was really two fights. The first took place near the entrance doors which had been broken up and most everyone moved inside. That’s when the trouble began upstairs on the second floor where up to 100 adults and teens became involved in a fight.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, library leaders agreed with police about how Wednesday’s fight started.
“There were two adults that provoked a fight with a 15-year-old,” Jeffrey Trzeciak, Dayton Metro Library’s executive director, said.
Trzeciak said he was disappointed that this happened again. He was also relieved adults managed to defuse things and get everyone outside safely.
“We are working on this every day and we do want the library to be a safe space,” Trzeciak said.
News Center 7 also spoke to Russ Kennard, who uses the downtown library a couple of times a month. He’s seen coverage of the teen violence but told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell that it doesn’t tell the whole story.
“Most kids I see here are studying, they’re not causing any problems,” Kennard said.
Library leaders said they’re working with schools, police, and other community partners to address this. They also said Dayton is not isolated in dealing with this, especially post-Covid.
“There has been a rise of incidents and especially in urban public libraries,” Trzeciak said.
Trzeciak said a lot of people are putting a lot of time and effort into coming up with solutions to address this.
Dayton Public Schools superintendent, Dr. David Lawrence said the district is actively investigating the fights.
“It is extremely unfortunate that students utilizing the library were victims of an assault,” Lawrence said.
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