Wednesday's violence at McKinley High School left parents rattled – and angry – as many stood outside in the February air for hours waiting for their children to be released.
For Markiel Hall, whose son was inside the building on lockdown, the lack of concrete information was infuriating.
"I'm worried about my child. People are shooting up schools for no reason," Hall said.
For much of the night, that was what parents – and reporters – had been told by Buffalo Police. As it turned out, the student who was injured had been stabbed, not shot – a fact that sources clarified to The Buffalo News Wednesday night.
A security guard had suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, though it wasn't immediately clear how that happened.
Hall, who was among the parents who waited outside the school building, called his son, also named Markiel, and confirmed that the 11th-grader was safe.
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"I'm waiting outside. I ain't going nowhere," he assured his boy.
The elder Hall was clearly frustrated that police and school officials were offering little information about how long the 100 or so students that were still in the building would be forced to stay there.
A short time later, Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia explained to reporters the process of reuniting children and parents was being taken deliberately to avoid a chaotic crush of people. He stressed the building was safe and had been cleared of any possible threats.
Frustrated parents asked officers what was keeping them from simply letting all the kids go home.
An unnamed police lieutenant assured the parent group: "We're just making sure they're OK. It's a traumatic event."
Another parent, Crystal Hennings-Moody, whose daughter Samantha is a 14-year-old freshman at McKinley, said her daughter had told her via text that there was a shooting and the school was in lockdown.
"MOM STAY HOME THERE WAS A SHOOTING DON'T COME," read the text message.
Hennings-Moody said she had called her daughter, who said she and others were put in lockdown and were "hiding in a classroom with the windows covered and the door locked."
The lockdown was later lifted and students were moved into the school's cafeteria, she said. Staff fed the kids dinner and, slowly, they were allowed to leave.
Though she's only been a student there for less than a year, Hennings-Moody said her daughter complained regularly about violent incidents this year at McKinley High School.
"She's been wanting to transfer out of McKinley for a while because there's constantly fights in there and she doesn't feel safe," Hennings-Moody said.
Buffalo Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash alluded to existing problems at the school in remarks to reporters outside the building Wednesday.
He said 15 additional staff members had been added to the building recently to address the problem.
Asked if she had heard anything further since that first frantic phone call, Hennings-Moody said her daughter, apparently less than eager to eat a school cafeteria dinner, had texted to ask "what's for dinner?"
"I told her 'whatever you want, baby,' " the mother said.
