This week a teacher working at the Indian River Dept. of Youth Services (DYS) facility in Massillon was assaulted and sent to the hospital with significant injuries. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which is investigating the incident, two 18-year-old youth residents carried out the attack using a weapon that may have been a hammer.
OCSEA President Chris Mabe has denounced the heartless attack and has demanded that DYS immediately provide all incident reports, video surveillance, audio recordings and communication logs connected to the incident. President Mabe said, “[the assault] is the direct result of persistent, systemic failures in [DYS] leadership and a blatant disregard for staff safety that has plagued this facility for far too long.”
This violent assault is nothing new for Indian River which has a long and troubled history of violence. In 2022, a JCO was severely beaten at Indian River a few days before juvenile inmates rioted and barricaded themselves in a building for several hours. A recent unannounced inspection by the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC) found that conditions at the facility have gotten worse. Since 2022, the number of fights and assaults on youth and staff at Indian River has increased every year between 2022 and 2024. And last year there were 18,607 Youth Behavioral Incident Reports filed at the facility, according to CIIC.