Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Earlier on Friday, the Buffalo Police Department and the Erie County District Attorney's Office provided the latest update regarding the arrest of a 17-year-old male in connection to an incident at McKinley High School on Wednesday that left a 14-year-old male stabbed multiple times.
The adolescent offender was arraigned on one count of Attempted Murder in the Second Degree and one count of Assault in the First Degree (Class "B" violent felonies). While the 17-year-old is in custody, Buffalo Police is still looking for another individual that shot a 27-year-old security officer at the high school, as well as grazing a 13-year-old in the arm.
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While Friday morning's press conference at the Dillon Building was looking back at what happened Wednesday afternoon, Friday afternoon's press conference at McKinley High School was an attempt to look into the future, to try and return to a sense of normalcy.
"I saw this as an opportunity this afternoon, following the press conference that was held this morning by our Mayor, Byron Brown, and our District Attorney, Mr. Flynn," said Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash. "It seemed to me and listening to that press conference, that if I then came with a subsequent press conference to allow you to hear what our plans are for McKinley High School,as well as what we do every day, to ensure that our children and our schools are safe."
Dr. Cash acknowledged at the start of Friday's press conference that the investigation will continue, but it was to be a separate matter from what was discussed at the school. Instead, the focus would be towards helping the students of McKinley High School and other schools in the district, while planning ahead to the return of students for classes as soon as possible.
"This is not about a high school, this is not about the Buffalo Public Schools, and anything to that nature. What it is about is how can we support children, students, families, who are in crisis," Dr. Cash said. "We do have anywhere from 2-3% of our students who are in crisis. I have 31,000 students rounded off. There are 958 students in McKinley High School. 30 students this year have had Level 4 or Level 5 incident violations, violations of our Code of Conduct. Most of those are simple assaults, fights. That means that's about 3% of the McKinley High School population. ... Those are the students that we're wrapping around. Those are the students that these colleagues are going to help us support and strengthen and bolster our support."
Of the many reasons for the issues with some of the most troubled students of McKinley High School, as Dr. Cash believes, is the influence that some of these students have through social media, and what they are watching and listening to on their phones or screens. Dr. Cash says the school and his team of assembled leadership members will make efforts to try and curb those influences as best as they can.
In terms of plans to re-open McKinley High School to students, Dr. Cash admits the process is an extraordinary one, but one that he hopes will help bring some clarity as to some of the potential trouble spots among the groups of students.
"We will start on Monday [Feb. 14]. We will be working with teachers, aides and assistants, cafeteria workers, custodians, encore specialists, everybody that is a staff member at this school will be engaged in the reset. That's exciting to me," Dr. Cash said. "Then the kids will be brought back probably on Tuesday, and they'll be brought back in phases. Ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade, so that we can continue to assess who's who, what's what, and where our special trouble spots might be so we can get immediately the assistance that they need, and bring back the culture to what it always has been."
Another major talking point of Friday afternoon's press conference with Dr. Cash was with regards to security at McKinley High School.
As of right now, McKinley High School has a total of five security officers hired to keep the students and staff of the school safe. At the time of Wednesday's incident, only two of those officers were in the building, as the other three had left after dismissal.
One of those officers, Bradley Walker, was the one shot on Wednesday as he tried to break up the fight in the parking lot that resulted in the 14-year-old student being stabbed multiple times. The other security guard, Jennifer Little, immediately went to Walker's side and began to provide pressure to his gunshot wound, making a tourniquet to make sure that he was okay.
When Dr. Cash spoke with Walker after Wednesday's shooting, the 27-year-old said he loves the students of McKinley High School and would never leave them. Walker is already looking forward to the day he can be back to work with the students of the school.
Dr. Cash did say that on top of the five security officers already in place, he plans on hiring additional behavioral specialists.
In addition, Dr. Cash has reached out to Mayor Brown, asking if the school could have more police officers or student resource officers come in and check up on any developing situations over the next while. Mayor Brown has already agreed to help Dr. Cash and the school district with that matter.
"We will have two officers assigned here, SROs, through the end of March, and longer if we need it," Dr. Cash explained. "But we don't anticipate that we will need it. We think we will be fully reset by that time."
Other enhanced security precautions that Dr. Cash mentioned on Friday was the ordering of updated technology with metal detectors. He says an order has already been put in for those upgrades and they are on their way.
You can listen to the entire press conference with Dr. Cash below:
