The post has learned that the director of Ohio who tried to prohibit police officers from entering school to investigate a bomb threat last month has a hostility towards the police, according to the post.
The recently launched bodycam images show the director of the Ridgeview high school, Natalie James, and their secretary arguing with two Columbus police officers who responded to the threat of a student’s deception bombs after telling them that they could not the building without school safety.
The incident, which occurred on March 17, is the last among the police officers of James and Columbus, said the president of the local police union to The Post.
Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of the City of Police #9, told the post in an interview that James has “implicit prejudices and disdain for the application of the law”, and a history of interference with police businesses.
“This has been happening for years with this director, who has a pattern of ignition or application of the obstacle law,” said Steel, citing incidents of “more than one boxes” among James and Columbus police officers.
Steel says he has been receiving calls from RidgeverView’s parents outraged by James’s behavior.
James Diorio is the father of a sixth grade son at RidgeverView high school. He called James’s interaction with the “shameful” police, but he was surprised at what he saw.
“She doesn’t show respect to anyone,” Diaorio told The Post. “The director of that school is more or less a tsar: she makes her own rules, and her opinion is the only one who counts.”
The officer Keith Conner, who responded to the March 17 incident in RidgeverView, expressed a similar feeling after leaving school that day.
“She is absolutely the most cooperative person with whom I have treated in a school system,” he heard to say about Bodycam’s footage.
That followed a discussion of almost 10 minutes with James and the secretary, in which both insisted that the school protocol prevented the officers from entering without the school security officer.
“What we have told the leg is that the district is that the police cannot simply go around the building and do what you want,” James told the two officers on the scene, before adding that he felt threatened by them.
“I have no hatred towards the police, but all or this intensity, etc., and so on, I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel comfortable,” he said.
The Conner officer repeatedly explained that the police have authority over school security and safety officials, and should not have to wait for permission to respond to an emergency.
“For some reason, you do not like the police and you want to make things difficult for us that we do not want to come to your school,” Conner told James in the recording.
“I don’t know what happened in your life that you hate us so much that you don’t want to cooperate.”
Finally, the two officers left school without contacting the student’s response for deception.
The incident is currently under investigation with the department of the Inspector General of the city of Columbus, who declined to comment on the matter, which is under an active review.
Steel says he communicated with the Superintendent of the schools of the city of Columbus, Angela Chapman, to clarify the district protocol with respect to the police officers who directed official businesses at the school’s facilities, and she assured him that he is investigating the problem.
“What he did was illegal. You can’t make a policy that triumphs on state and local law,” Steel told The Post. “This is not how it works.”
The spokesman for the schools of the city of Columbus, Mike Defabbo, told The Post that Dr. Chapman and the Chief of Police of Columbus, Elaine Bryant, reviewed and discussed the images and will have a meeting with their two leadership teams “to reinforce commitments and expectations.”
“I made clear the police chief that any action to discipline [Conner] It won’t be tolerated, “said Steel.” Our officer did nothing wrong. ”
The Columbus Police Division rejected the request of the position to interview the officers involved.
Franklin County Court records show that James was arrested in 2022 for domestic violence and assault. The charges were dismissed later.
James did not return the request for comments from the post.
