Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Tuesday officially marks the first day of the phased return to school program for McKinley High School, nearly three weeks after an incident on Feb. 9 that saw one student stabbed and a school security officer shot.
Seniors are set to return to school on Tuesday for one day this week, as part of the phased approach, followed by the juniors on Wednesday, sophomores on Thursday and freshmen on Friday. The process will repeat the following week with seniors back in school on Monday before all four class groups return for in-person learning at McKinley on Friday.
As the school prepares for a hopeful return to normalcy with students returning to class, many concerns from within the school have been brought up over the years regarding the increasing rates of violence. Many of these concerns were highlighted in a recent blog post that was written by a group of six people consisting of teachers, community members and parents who worked collaboratively on the post.
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"Most of the information in there were letters that I sent to the board, the BTF sent to the Board and to the Superintendent," said President of the Buffalo Teachers Federation, Phil Rumore on Monday. "As far as I was able to review, all of it is accurate. We were complaining, we did reviews. As far as I'm concerned, it is completely accurate, as a lot of that information is stuff that was sent to the Superintendent and the Board."
With the concerns of violence still very much prevalent as students return to classes this week, Rumore believes the Buffalo Public School District has to do a better job hearing the concerns of teachers.
"The bottom line is they and the parents want to be listened to, but not just listen to, that what they want has to be acted on," Rumore said. "It's not a question of what anybody thinks, it's about what the people on the ground -the parents and the teachers and the students - know. They're the ones that know what has to be done, and they expect that they will not only be listened to, but they will be heeded and action will be taken in concurrence with what they believe is the right thing for the students. And I think we need to involve some of the students in small groups also, as to what they say."
With the number of violent incidents that have been alleged to come from McKinley from all difference parties in the school, Rumore feels that many of the claims from the blog post over the years have fallen on deaf ears.
"Unfortunately, yes, and it's not just at McKinley. It's at other schools as well. There are other high schools and other schools that need more security, that need more intervention, need more working with the parents and everybody," Rumore said. "The bottom line is it's not just a question of what anybody outside of the schools think, it's what the people in those schools know."
Where the Buffalo Public School District is hoping to ease tensions of students, staff and parents alike is having the presence of anti-violence groups in the school. Groups like the Stop The Violence Coalition and Buffalo Peacemakers will be on-hand to help everyone in the school feel comfortable re-integrating into the school setting.
"All of the teachers I've talked at the various schools are very encouraged by having some of the parent groups, some of the anti-violence groups coming into the school. We need to have that on an ongoing basis," Rumore said.
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While the threat of continued violence certainly has teachers of the Buffalo Teachers Federation concerned, the phased plan in place to bring students back to McKinley High School also has teachers concerned over the next couple of weeks.
"The only teachers I've talked to so far are still concerned as to how it's going to work," Rumore explained. "They would have liked a little bit more input, but the bottom line is they want to have any kind of approval, along with the parents, as to any kind of a long-term solution as to what's going on at the school.
"There are questions that have arisen, for example, let's say that I'm an English teacher and on the first day the seniors have back, how do I then go from teaching the seniors first period to the juniors second period? Do I do that virtually? Those are the questions that are being asked, and we'll have a little bit more from the teachers later on [Monday]."
Another concern with teachers heading into the coming weeks doesn't actually involve the violence or return of schools coming back to class. It actually has to do with the end of the statewide mask mandate. While many parents and students are relieved to have the mask mandate finally ending, some teachers and administrators are a bit concerned the mandate is coming to an end just a bit too early right after coming back from February break.
"I think it's a little precipitous to do that," Rumore believes. "We took a vote of over 2,000 teachers, and the teacher said that what has to happen is before the masks are lifted, there has to be enough time to do an analysis of when everybody comes back into school to see whether if it started to spread again. Just three days isn't enough time.
There needs to have been more time between the end of the mid-winter break so there'd be a complete analysis done. How does it hurt to wait for an extra week or so just to ensure that everybody is safe? In addition, there's concern about the kids that are in the school too. Some of our kids have asthma, some of them are very sickly. We want to make sure and find out how many of the students have been vaccinated. Have the students been vaccinated? Are they being tested? Etc. So there are concerns that we want to be safe."
You can listen to our entire conversation with Rumore below:
