BUFFALO, N.Y. — Parents at Buffalo Public School #156 are speaking out after the school was placed on a brief lockdown on Tuesday morning after a student reported seeing another student with what appeared to be a gun.
Amanda Thompson and Rick Crouch's 11-year-old son Kyrell is a fifth grader at Frederick Law Olmsted School at Kensington, also known as PS 156.
Buffalo Police say just before 11 a.m. the school went into a brief lockdown following reports that a student had a gun inside the school.
Police responded quickly and arrested a seventh-grade student. The suspected weapon turned out to be a BB gun. By 11:15 a.m. the lockdown was lifted and the school day resumed as normal.
"I seen the principals come in and look around. One of my principals, he ran," Kyrell recalled. "I think he went downstairs to the office and he called saying it's a lockdown. It was just so confusing. It was just random."
Kyrell called his mom from his cellphone right after the lockdown lifted. Amanda Thompson says the first she heard about the incident was from her son, not the district.
"I called my mom because I was just trying to inform her because I know they're not going to inform her until a little bit later so I wanted to give her the information as soon as possible," Kyrell said.
Kyrell's parents got an official email from the school district nearly two hours later.
"We're trusting our children in your hands for eight hours a day for nine, 10 months out of the year but you can't tell us what's going on?" Amanda Thompson expressed.
The Buffalo Public School District has had long-standing complaints regarding transparency. In fact, interim Superintendent Dr. Tonja Williams made it clear from the day she took office that accessibility and transparency would be priorities for her.
Another issue Kyrell's parents want to be addressed is school safety.
"Two seconds out of their day just to let parents know your child's safety. They're not doing this. They're notifying us two hours later," Amanda Thompson said.
Kyrell's dad Rick Thompson picked him up shortly after the lockdown ended. As for whether or not his son will be returning to school tomorrow?
Rick Thompson tells 2 On Your Side's Liz Lewin, "I talked to him on the way home today. Like we're really considering home education now... and considering the responses of parents at the school when I picked him up that school might be empty come to the rest of this week."
Following today's incident, PS 156 has made some security and safety changes effective immediately.
Here is the letter that was sent out to families informing them of new changes:
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