BUFFALO, N.Y. — A shelter-in-place went into effect at Riverside High School on Wednesday.
Buffalo Public Schools sent 2 On Your Side a statement about the shelter-in-place order. It said in part, "Protecting the health and safety of all students and staff at Riverside High School is a priority. Earlier Wednesday, the school went into shelter-in-place because of a student experiencing emotional distress."
The statement went on to say school officials de-escalated the situation by contacting the Buffalo Police and the student's family.
The full statement is here.
“Protecting the health and safety of all students and staff at Riverside High School is a priority. Earlier today the school went into shelter in place because of a student experiencing emotional distress and to deescalate the situation. School officials followed protocols by going into shelter in place, contacting the Buffalo Police, and the student’s family. Additional supportive services will be put into place.”
A photo sent to us by a teacher inside the school Wednesday shows a hole in a wall. 2 On Your Side was told a student punched that hole in the wall in the Riverside front office and that the student required two security guards to be detained.
The Board of Education held a special meeting, which had been previously scheduled, to discuss safety and security within the district.
"In order for us to meet these goals, our students have to feel safe and secure every day. Our teachers, our cafeteria staff, our administrators, parents who may be in our schools, board members who may be in our schools have got to feel safe and secure so that we can focus on these student outcomes that this board has set forth for this year," superintendent Tonja Williams said.
At Wednesday's meeting, the superintendent made it clear that in order for the district to achieve its goal students and faculty must feel safe. That includes creating new school security positions.
This comes after a student was stabbed multiple times outside of Riverside High School on Oct. 4. There's another incident involving a 39-year-old allegedly assaulting a student and staff member last month.
Williams proposed partnering with community organizations and having additional counselors and social workers available at schools. There's also a need, she says, to hire more school security officers.
"When we do all of this work preventively, the hope is that we decrease children experiencing any challenges, but we know with all the preventive work we are doing, there will still be some that will need more support," Williams said.
The goal is to get 137 officers district-wide by June 2025.