Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Parents of students at McKinley High School were sent into a state of perturbation on Wednesday after hearing word of a reported shooting after school's dismissal.
It was around 3:45 p.m. EST when there was an incident that occurred outside of the school that ended up leaving a 14-year-old student stabbed multiple times, as well as a school security guard with a gunshot wound to the leg.
Buffalo Police said Wednesday evening the student was out of surgery and was recovering at Oishei Children's Hospital. Meanwhile, the security guard was taken to ECMC and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
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Upon learning of the incident, a number of parents made their way down to the school on Elmwood Avenue, waiting to bring their kids back home after spending hours in the school on lockdown.
However, a number of parents that showed up to the school were upset with the Buffalo Public Schools for a lack of prompt communication regarding the incident.
"I heard from my son himself. He actually texted me and let me know that there was a shooting and a lockdown. Also, a friend called and let me know," said concerned parent Deandrea Stroud on Wednesday. "Absolutely no correspondence from McKinley or the superintendent. I get texts every single day about meetings, phone calls, voicemails. No correspondence, and I'm very upset about that."
"I didn't get any contact from the schools," echoed fellow concerned parent Latrese Hayes. "We have several family members that also attend school here. So all my cousins were calling, some of their kids stay home today. So I don't know if these kids knew something was breeding in the school, but a lot of kids stayed at home today."
As parents arrived on the scene at McKinley High School with emergency responders and other members of the local media, a few mothers and fathers expressed their frustrations with the school not informing of them of what was happening. One woman said she was forced to find out what happened at McKinley High School via the news. Other parents said it was their kids or other family members calling to let them know of what was unfolding.
"We communicated as soon as we could with our parents, because this happened at an awkward time of day. It was at the dismissal time, and it was at a time when we were still gathering information about what happened," said superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools, Dr. Kriner Cash. "There was a lot of misinformation, and I needed to make sure it was accurate. The Mayor [Byron Brown] and I were in close correspondence from about 3:20 p.m., 3:30 p.m. EST all the way until we came to this press conference."
However, parents felt otherwise about the efficiency of communication from Buffalo Public Schools, as some did not receive any sort of message from the school about the ongoing incident.
The school [didn't'] call. There was no pre-recorded message, it was nothing. We're just standing out here, like, we don't know," said Melissa, whose daughter was in the school during the lockdown. "My daughter actually called and told me what happened."
According to Stroud, she had received a text message and a voicemail about a staff meeting that was canceled for the day, but nothing regarding the incident and the lockdown in the school. Parents were left to asking members of the Buffalo Police for updates on what's going on.
Stroud says that's a major problem that the Buffalo Public Schools need to address.
"The staff, the principals, put yourselves in our shoes. Their kids go to school too. Wouldn't you want to hear from your child's school that something is going on there?," said Hayes in agreeance with Stroud. "Not a text, not nothing. They text about everything else - when your child's late, all of that, they do that. They didn't send no notification. We had to find out from our children. ... It's pitiful."
According to one parent who picked up their kid just before 7 p.m. EST, they did not receive any notification of the incident from McKinley High School until after 5 p.m. EST.
When asked about the level of frustrations from parents on Wednesday and what can be said about a lack of prompt communication from the Buffalo Public Schools, Dr. Cash says he appreciates the parents' concerns, and expressed his own concerns too.
"We got the message out as soon as we could, as soon as we had cogent details," Dr. Cash said. "We've worked very closely with the city. The mayor is actually most helpful to me to get the accurate information that was occurring, because he worked so closely with his commissioners. And when I got that piece together, we then put that message out."
As was mentioned by some parents, and even some students of the school on Wednesday, there seemed to be some uneasiness brewing in the school of a potential incident like this happening at some point. While threats are seemingly becoming more common at schools in the City of Buffalo, some parents are concerned that staff members are not taking matters as seriously as they should be.
"My son was in a situation a couple of months ago, and a teacher overheard a student threatening his life and didn't report it to the office. She didn't tell anyone, she didn't pull him to the side and have him call me or anything. It was like they didn't have a care," Hayes said. "Then when I came to school to talk about the situation, the principal assured me no one could get weapons in the school. I told her, 'You can't assure me of that.' These kids get stuff in places all the time, so you can't assure me; I didn't want him to come back to the school, but unfortunately, those are the only resources, at the time, we had. He had to come back to school."
"Leadership, teachers, the principal, administration; [they're] not listening to their students. They're not engaged, and that's a big problem," Stroud added. "You have to be engaged with the student population you serve, because had they been engaged and know what's going on in your school, this would have not occurred."
Parents are hoping that the school district can learn from this experience, and next time be better when it comes to a swift response to similar incidents.