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Mother of stabbing victim at McKinley High School speaks out

For the first time, we're hearing from his mother, Aurielle Austin, who is demanding that the school board does more.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — "I will never live this down, knowing that it could have been prevented."

Those words from the mother of the teen who was stabbed at McKinley High School almost two weeks ago. She is demanding the school board do more.

Sirgio Jeter, a 14-year-old McKinley High School student, is fighting for his life at Oishei Children's Hospital after being stabbed 10 times outside McKinley High School school Feb. 9. 

For the first time, we're hearing from his mother, Aurielle Austin, who shared photos showing Sirgio as a vibrant teen before the violent attack. She says he has multiple stab wounds to the abdomen, which punctured some of his organs.

"They're not specifying any time soon that he'll recover," Austin said when asked about what the doctors are telling her about his condition.

Austin says her son can talk, but can barely walk and has anxiety.

"I will never get over this, I will never live this down, knowing that it could have been prevented," she said. "He is struggling with the idea that he experienced his freshman year this way and that he is pretty much on his own. He still feels left to die."

And he's afraid even in the hospital, according to his mom.

"He's not ready to accept the fact that he may have been changed forever," Austin said.

She wants to see real change from the school district.

"I want for the Buffalo Public Schools to acknowledge their wrong and neglect and see to it that these Buffalo Public Schools are more than secure from here on out."

Austin says her son was not even the target. It was his cousin who was targeted for a fight, but it was Sirgio who was attacked. 

Attorneys John Elmore and Kristen Elmore-Garcia filed a notice of claim against the Buffalo Public School District and Dr. Kriner Cash.

"Students actually presented to the school that they were receiving threatening text messages threatening social media messages and that the school was aware that there was potential for violence," Elmore-Garcia said. Students got the messages the same day as the attack. 

"3:19 p.m. on February 9, 2022, Sirgio's cousin was in the principal's office and while he was in the principal's office he was receiving threatening text messages and showed them to the school principal. What did the school principal do? Send him to his last period. Didn't call his parents," Elmore said.

"I am very angry and I feel like BPS, especially McKinley failed to protect my son," Austin said.

Read the full claim filed against the Buffalo Public School District and Dr. Kriner Cash:

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