BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo Public Schools superintendent Tonja Williams called out to parents Wednesday with an urgent plea.
In her weekly video to the school community, the superintendent asked for more action at home to prevent the growing violence in and around school.
“I am asking you to make every effort to ensure your children go straight home or to their after-school activities,” Williams said. “I'm imploring you, as parents, caregivers, and community leaders to speak with your children about their behaviors to set these expectations.”
It follows a series of outbursts from students and recently a number of incidents at Fountain Plaza, prompting the superintendent to threaten revoking student's transit passes.
“This was very unsafe, the youth were unsupervised, and there were physical altercations,” Williams said of the incidents at Fountain Plaza.
2 On Your Side was on scene Wednesday after dismissal with cameras rolling and witnessed a fight in real-time one stop from the Fountain Plaza station. 2 On Your Side cannot confirm if the students involved attend Buffalo Public Schools.
The NFTA responded with a statement, echoing the superintendent’s concern for the fights among students.
“We’ve recently implemented strict timed bus passes to only give students a certain amount of time to travel home or to after-school activities, as well as returned the NFTA transit school resource unit with additional NFTA officers monitoring student passage,” the statement read.
In an additional statement to 2 On Your Side, BPS defended the potential action of taking bus passes away, saying this is something it has always been able to do and adding that it will only impact the small number of students involved in the violent incidents.