Some residents in Akron call for school building to be condemned

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Renee Vaughn wants the old Rankin Elementary School in Akron demolished for what she said are obvious reasons.

“I shouldn’t have to open my door and look out my door and see such tragedy,” says Vaughn.

Rankin Elementary is now abandoned and Vaughn says nobody cares.

No longer is this the proud educational pillar of early development. Instead, it is boarded up with broken windows everywhere.

Renee says it’s a nuisance and she is disgusted by what she sees daily.

“Young teenagers over here smoking, drinking, and gambling and using that bathroom. That is what I see,” said Vaughn.

The 19 News Troubleshooter team went looking straight for answers and reached out to Akron Police Lieutenant Mike Miller to see if he is familiar with the school and the neighbors complaints.

“In this case, we have calls of very young teens in the playground or inside the school,” said Miller.

According to Akron police, this has been a growing concern for over 10 years, and the reason why the building hasn’t been condemned is because it is own by Stowers Community Development. We reach out to them and have yet to hear back.

Lieutenant Miller says if they don’t begin to clean matter up, the city of Akron does have options to force them to too comply, because ultimately, it falls on them.

“It does and we still have some reach and buy in with that. We have some resources that we can devout. Our Neighborhood Response Team’s officers, in particular, can reach out to the current owners,” said Miller.

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