BUFFALO, N.Y. — New video from inside McKinley High School is providing a glimpse of the moments parents say have made their students scared to attend school.
A video taken Friday was shared with 2 On Your Side from a McKinley parent showing a fight breaking out in the hallway with multiple other students recording it on their phones. The video also came with a letter addressed to the district’s superintendent Dr. Tonja Williams where the parent said their daughter has been harassed, bullied and assaulted almost everyday.
That fight took place on the same day as another incident at Riverside High School where a parent brought a knife through security and presented it to the principal.
Those two incidents are just the latest on a long list that Buffalo Public School teachers say have unfolded this year.
“We have shelter-in-place orders on a regular basis,” Riverside teacher Marc Bruno said. “We call 911 almost daily. … It's just starting to spiral out of control.”
The district responded to the incidents in a statement, acknowledging both and saying they are working to strengthen security. However, the district called the fight at McKinley “isolated” despite the letter from the parent also providing videos of multiple other incidents from this school year.
The superintendent did reply to the parent, as well as the news media, about following up on the incidents. A district spokesperson issued this statement:
“Superintendent Williams values having discussions with parents who contact her, as she stated in her response, and she has offered to meet with the parent privately. While this conversation will remain private, the superintendent copied you in her reply to the parent because you were included on the initial note.”
Bruno, a parent of a first-grader in Buffalo Public Schools, said he believes in the success stories for most students in the district, but the violent outbreaks are causing him to consider removing his son from the district altogether.
“That’s heartbreaking to me,” he said.
He also plans to attend the Buffalo Board of Education meeting Wednesday night where he will request that the board return Buffalo Police officers to schools like Riverside and McKinley that have experienced these incidents after having removed them in 2021.
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