BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Public Schools superintendent is addressing security measures being taken following a stabbing in a high school bathroom this week.
A 16-year-old student from the Buffalo School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management is charged with stabbing a classmate this week three times, puncturing a lung.
A fight broke out in one of the girls bathrooms just after noon Tuesday at the Buffalo School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management. A bunch of girls were involved at first, then the Erie County District Attorney says one pulled out a steak knife and stabbed the 17-year-old victim.
The Erie County district attorney thinks the girl brought the knife to school.
"To be fair to the school district, you know, it happened in a bathroom, and so really you can't police bathrooms, you know what I'm saying? But again, you can police what comes in and comes out of the school if you wand people or have metal detectors," Erie County district attorney John Flynn said.
The school district can not comment on the students involved but called this an isolated and targeted incident, adding that every 9th through 12th-grader is wanded when they get to school with a hand-held metal detector, and their bag is also searched.
"It was quickly addressed. Any threat to anyone else in the building was, you know, addressed very quickly," Buffalo Public Schools superintendent Dr. Tonja Williams said.
The district says there are more school resource officers, security officers, and bus aides this year. There are also new protocols for anyone who visits a school. They go through a security check and are escorted.
"There really was this sense of understanding from parents and families that, you know, yes, I might have to go through a security or, you know, yes, I can't just pop in like I used to," Dr. Williams said.
The Buffalo Teachers Federation is sending out monthly surveys to teachers asking for feedback on the security measures.
"What we do is we send it back to the teachers so that they all know what's going on, and we send it to the school district for them to take corrective actions because we will have it by school, and then we'll all work together because we've got to find out, we've got to make sure that this doesn't happen again," Buffalo Teachers Federation president Phil Rumore said.
The 16-year-old accused of stabbing the other student this week is scheduled to be in court Monday. She's being held without bail.