Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Students and staff at McKinley High School are preparing for a return to in-person classes and lectures for the first time since an incident on Feb. 9 that saw one student stabbed and a school security officer shot.
Classes will start up again on Monday coming back from February break, but students will be returning to class in a phased approach. The schedule starts Monday with classes remaining all remote, followed by students returning for a day of in-person learning on a grade-by-grade basis. Tuesday will see seniors back in class, followed by juniors on Wednesday, sophomores on Thursday and freshmen on Friday.
The following week, seniors will be back in-person on Monday, followed by juniors on Tuesday, sophomores on Wednesday and freshman on Thursday. Then on Friday, March 11, the plan is for all students to return to the school for in-person learning.
As the school begins preparations for a return to normalcy with students returning to class, there are likely to be many students, teachers, administrators and parents concerned for a return with the growing numbers of violent incidents in the school prior to Feb. 9's incident. Some of the violence and other matters with McKinley High School were brought up recently in a blog post that was written by a group of six people consisting of teachers, community members and parents who worked collaboratively on the post.
With students set to come back and the violence coming to a boiling point nearly three weeks ago, anti-violence groups like the Stop the Violence Coalition and Buffalo Peacemakers will be on-hand to ensure kids are feeling comfortable and safe returning to school. For the most part, they believe the students are ready and want to get back to school.
"They don't do well not having some activity during the course of the day. They just do not. They love the socialization, and they love the interaction. And some of them actually go to school to learn," said Pastor James Giles from Buffalo Peacemakers. "Their quest for going to school has to do with them graduating, going on become a success in life, for the most part. That's our children, as well as all of the children. They want that, they understand why they go to school.
"Some of the parents are a little more concerned, because naturally, they're concerned with the safety and well-being of the children. But what I want to say is that I think we put together a very comprehensive program along with Dr. Kriner Cash and the school board, as well as the faculty of the Buffalo Public Schools, and we have really thoughtfully put this together."
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Unfortunately, many of the growing concerns with violence at McKinley High School were brought up in not just the blog post, but also among other faculty and administrators in the school. So much so, that the principals and assistant principals have been asking the Buffalo Public School District to provide McKinley with enhanced security for quite some time.
"The reasons for those requests have been the frequency of events happening at the schools that required either security or intervention of security officers, or a presence of a SRO [student resource officer], because some of these principals and assistant principals have, on too many occasions, found themselves in the middle of a physical altercation or dangerous situations involving students or people from the community in and near the schools," said attorney Rob Boreanaz for the Buffalo Counsel of Supervisors and Advisors. "Unfortunately, the district hasn't been responsive despite the repeated requests over a long period of time."
Over the years, principals and administrators have heard the concerns expressed by teachers and other staff members regarding the safety concerns in the school due to the number of fights and other incidents that led to violence.
Unfortunately, though, it happened to take an incident like the one on Feb. 9 for the enhanced security measures and the other requests from school staff and administrators to be seriously taken into consideration.
But for the anti-violence groups that are contributing to helping the school district get kids back in school and feeling safe in the process, their interaction with the school and the kids has been a work in progress even before the incident.
"We just announced it after McKinley, but we have been working on this since November," Pastor Giles explained. "We had a rash of fightings, and some of them very violent, when school started back in September. [It was] something we anticipated, because of people coming off the COVID, and people coming off virtual learning, and now we've kind of full blown back to school. So we anticipated some of that."
The goal of groups like Buffalo Peacemakers will be to help ensure students of a warm welcome back to school over the coming weeks. They will also be gauging what kids are dealing with in and away from the classroom, and dealing with ways to try and make the community a better place for not only the students, but for everyone involved.
"In terms of going back to McKinley, we have individuals in place. People that look like their parents, people that look like their uncle, people that look like their cousin. We have people in place that are being trained to be mentors so that when individuals are having a rough day and they're having some struggle, they've got some issues that may be at home, they're bringing into the classroom, they're being a little disruptive, that we can intervene in that and we can talk with them, we can kind of give them a voice," Pastor Giles said. "More importantly, we can listen and hear out their pain. We can hear what it is that they're crying out, and give it some value.
"I can't say enough about how children tell me they don't like adults, because adults never listen to them. In other words, we have the responsibility of giving them value, empowering them. And we don't, oftentimes. We just think automatically, because we're the wrong one and we say this, they better mind us. That's a terrible way to bring up a child."
As Pastor Giles explains, he says it's important for parents to get involved in the life of their children, in order for them to truly understand the landscape of life outside of the household.
"We, the anti-violence groups, all those that are committed to this work, have been trying to help parents understand, please, please pay attention to your child. What they're doing, who they're hanging with, what time they come in at night. Get up in their business, because some of them are involved in something that you would pull your hair out if you even knew about it, and you don't find out until it's too late," Pastor Giles said. "We're encouraging parents to lean into your child. I don't mean to lean on them, lean into them, hear them, give them a voice, allow them the freedom to be able to speak to you truth and without worrying about repercussions or condemnation. Saying to parents, please, they've got to begin to establish a relationship with their children so that the children can say, 'Hey mom, somebody's threatened me at school, and I'm gonna pick up a piece [gun] and protect myself.' So they can tell you about that stuff, and you can call one of anti-violence groups and we'll come in, respond to that, try to heal that, try to allay the fears of that child that may feel like they're being threatened.
"We need everybody working together toward this end, because I believe in my mind, that our children are the most absolute, most valuable resources that we have as humankind. We have to begin to lean into their care and well-being a little more better than what we've done."
Pastor Giles also explains that children have three pathways of learning in life: They learn by things they're taught, learn by things they experience or explore, and they also learn by mimicking. He believes that a lot of those actions start in the home or starts with groups they hang out with, and then bleed into the classroom at school.
"They see people fight, they see people talk about each other, they see people talk down to each other, they see people beat each other up. Even in their homes, they see all of that going on and they mimic that behavior. This would happen when dad got angry, this would happen when the mama got angry or the girlfriend got angry. They see all of that, but they never see the makeup," Pastor Giles said. "So they learn how to fight, but they [don't] learn how to make up. That's done in a bedroom or some other rooms, some other quiet space. So they learn and we're teaching them, and we're all accountable in that regard. We've got to learn to treat each other better, and they'll start mimicking what it is that they see.
This can also serve true with the technology that children have surrounded themselves with, and what they may see or read about on the Internet or on social media.
"When they are downloaded information and data and social media and just bad movies, some children may be as naive to think that people are going to get up. They could turn and click it off and replay the episode. It's not like that," Pastor Giles said. "Trust me, a lot of them do not understand what they're doing when they're fighting. All they know is that those 'Fight or Flight' principles are at work, and they fight and they're angry and they want to punch out and they want to hurt, because they hurt inside.'"
Going forward and as kids return to class at McKinley, the effort will be on everyone to not only get students feeling close to a sense of normalcy, but also to do all they can to bring to light the serious nature of violence and trying to avoid any other serious incidents from taking place.
"The principals and administrators at McKinley now are going to be hardworking, they're very dedicated individuals," said Boreanaz. "My goal, and everybody's goal here, is that the district supports them, supports the staff, supports the principals and administrators. That the district provides adequate support for them to provide a safe and effective learning environment for these students. That's critical that the district steps up not only at McKinley, but at every single school in the district. There has to be placed a higher priority to provide the necessary support regarding security, safety, not just to the staff, but also the students in each and every school, in addition to McKinley."
"I must say, McKinley may have been the catalyst for this 'one mind concept,' where everybody is thinking about 'what do I need to do to make sure our children are safe? And how do I work with other people that are in this same mindset?' I think it may have triggered that, and that's happening, and we're going to do all that we can, as much as within the power of each of us - GYC Ministries, Mad Dads of Greater Buffalo, Homicide Education [Prevention Project] and Most Valuable Parents," Pastor Giles said. "These individuals have decided and got to this contract to begin to make sure, along with Buffalo Peacemakers, that when children return to school, not just McKinley, [Math Science Technology Preparatory School], Burgard, Emerson, [International Preparatory School At Grover], Riverside, South Park, all those schools, we want them all to be safe. Whenever a child feels afraid to go to school because they feel threatened, we're going to try to change the culture with that."