BUFFALO, N.Y. — After a pattern of fights between young people have broken out in downtown Buffalo, Buffalo Police, Buffalo Public Schools, and Peacekeepers Buffalo are working together to end them.
A fight on Wednesday included at least 10 kids. Two people were stabbed and transported to the hospital. Both of them were students at Burgard High School's summer school.
Police said neither of them attended school that day.
Police are working with the NFTA to find a solution to the problem, which they think is partially caused by the bus passes the students all have. They are supposed to use them to get to school. However, the passes allow them to go wherever they want in the city.
"The bus passes to travel wherever they like. That is obviously posing a problem because they can travel wherever they like," Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said. "So we'll have more discussions with the superintendent with the NFTA on how that can hopefully be resolved and ensure that these kids aren't going to school and then going home back, where they're supposed to be."
Pastor James Giles is the leader of Buffalo Peacemakers, a group that works with children in Buffalo to keep them from fighting. He said that it takes a group effort to end this violence, some of which requires the students to put in the work.
"They have to learn about conflict resolution, they have to learn about how do you deescalate a situation, they have to learn about how do you avoid individuals that are challenging them. They have to learn that," Giles said.