Teen's school history unstable, records show

2/27/2007

The 15-year-old boy accused of killing a Toledo police officer last week spent the last several years in and out of schools, ending up in a charter school for troubled youths and high school dropouts.

Police allege the teenager, Robert Jobe, of 1530 North Michigan St., shot and killed Toledo police vice Detective Keith Dressel with a 38-caliber handgun in the 1400 block of North Ontario Street early Wednesday.

The youth is being held in the Lucas County Juvenile Detention Center.

The teenager's education apparently was fractured and unstable, but one former principal said the youth's mother tried for a period of time to set him "on the right path."

Chris Knight, former principal of Assumption Holy Trinity Catholic School in eastern Fulton County, said the boy's mother enrolled him there beginning with sixth grade - shortly after the death of his father, Clarence Robert Jobe, Jr., 52, in 2002.

The teenager lives with his mother, Diane. She has declined previous requests by The Blade to be interviewed.

"She really wanted to get him out of the environment he was in where they were living," said Mr. Knight, who is now principal of St. John's Jesuit Academy, a junior high school. He said the teenager's attendance was sometimes poor.

"She had heard so many good things about the school and liked the idea of him going out to the country, and also thought it would be good to have some male teachers and myself as principal," Mr. Knight said.

The youth's mother apparently drove him to the school from her North Toledo home, a distance of more than 20 miles.

Mr. Knight said the boy was "always very respectful and never had any behavior problems" during sixth grade, when he was 12.

He attended the Catholic school for about three academic years, until he was in the eighth grade, Mr. Knight said.

According to Toledo Public Schools records, the youth was withdrawn from Assumption Holy Trinity School on Nov. 10, 2004, and enrolled at Horizon Science Academy, a Toledo charter school, the next day.

It was not clear how long he attended that charter school, but he was re-enrolled at Assumption Holy Trinity on Aug. 29, 2006.

Less than a month later, the teenager was enrolled at Toledo Public's Woodward High School on Sept. 19, 2006.

TPS records state that his mother reported he was enrolled after being home-schooled for one day, Sept. 18.

On Jan. 25, the Jobe youth was enrolled at The Phoenix Academy, a Toledo Public-sponsored charter school for troubled youths and high school dropouts.

At Phoenix Academy on Jefferson Avenue, Principal Earl Apgar told The Blade last week that the teen was "within a week" of being reported for truancy because he had only appeared at the school twice and was chronically absent.