BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) "This is a crisis that we need to take extremely seriously and address collectively as a school district and as a community." Buffalo School Board member Larry Scott on WBEN Friday morning, after having had more than a full day to process the stabbing and shooting outside McKinley High School on Wednesday.
Scott told Susan Rose and Brian Mazurowski that Wednesday was his most difficult day as a school board member, Buffalo Public School parent, and an educator.
Related
Acknowledging that the violence at McKinley Wednesday was a targeted incident and not similar to other school shootings around the country in which students have had calculated plans to shoot multiple people within a school building, Scott noted a disturbing trend that has developed.
"It's happening across our city. It's happening outside of our city. It's happening in multiple schools. It escalated over the Summer and is impacting more of our youth," he said.
Access to guns and knives is not something that's coming from schools, he said, but rather from the community.
"The pandemic has had an impact on everybody, and certainly our students. I think that is why we're seeing an escalation in problem behavior." Scott notes it's not just among students, but with adults as well.
"We're hearing about egregious physical and verbal harassment of adults on staff, on students and online with social media. It's very toxic and our kids are watching," he added.
Where does this go from being a school issue, to a police or community issue? "This goes far beyond the walls of our school," he said. "It's political, governmental, economic, community and societal. It impacts so many of our families directly and indirectly."
The school board member pointed to a 2019 district survey in which one-third of Buffalo Public School students reported seeing someone shot, beaten or stabbed.
Scott said pointing a finger at schools is not enough. "The guns, knives and gang activity is coming from the community. We need to get to the root of the problem."
Proposals have come and gone in the past for metal detectors in schools. There has never been enough support for them. Scott admits he has not been on board with the idea in the past but said with the prevalence of weapons in the community today, the idea is giving him pause. "But it can't just be metal detectors and policing. It also has to address mental health, trauma, gang activity, etc."
Parents expressed communication concerns with school leaders on Wednesday. Many parents learned of the incident from their children or from local media reports, and not the district.
Larry Scott said he didn't have a full response to the criticism, however, he observed the situation first-hand as he was at McKinley on Wednesday. He called it a crisis situation, that quickly became a police situation, in which law enforcement was in charge of disseminating information. "We have to be careful that we're not sharing anything that is going to create more panic and potentially create a more dangerous situation." Scott went on to say there is always room to improve communication and it needs to be assessed in this case.