A 16-year-old girl is in custody and a 17-year-old girl is in serious condition in Oishei Children's Hospital following a stabbing Tuesday inside School 355 Buffalo School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management, Buffalo police said.
Police said the 16-year-old girl is alleged to have stabbed the 17-year-old multiple times during an altercation about noon in the school at 75 W. Huron St.Â
Police were investigating where the knife came from, but said they expected dismissal from school would take place as scheduled.
Buffalo Public Schools spokesman Ka'Ron Barnes said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that the district was aware of the incident, which he termed "unfortunate and isolated," and that Buffalo Police Department school resource officers were contacted immediately as the school was put into "shelter-in-place" mode. He said Buffalo Public Schools staff implemented "all appropriate protocols."
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"The Buffalo Public School District takes any violent offenses occurring on school grounds very seriously, and will follow the Code of Conduct with disciplinary measures," Barnes said.Â
New BPS Superintendent Tonja M. Williams emphasized school safety as one of the central points of her three-year Strategic Plan in her State of the Schools event Aug. 26. She said in the address that she knew the security guard who was shot in an incident in McKinley High School in February, which gave it an even more personal effect.
A lawsuit alleges Buffalo Public Schools and former Superintendent Kriner Cash either knew or should have known that there was potential for violence before a McKinley High student was stabbed and beaten and a security guard was shot Feb. 9.
Along with the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the shooting and stabbing at McKinley prompted a greater range of security measures for this school year, including wanding every BPS high school student upon entry, adding 15 people to the school security team and creating a new School Safety Department.
In the McKinley incident, Buffalo Public Schools and former BPS superintendent Kriner Cash have been sued by a victim's mother for failing to prevent the violence. Attorney John Elmore's suit argues that the violent act occurred even though the district and Cash knew or should have known it could happen due to threats made earlier in the day and reports from the Buffalo Teachers Federation about more than 40 violent incidents at McKinley leading up to February.
The Buffalo School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management includes grades 9 to 12 and opened March 5, 2020, in the former C. W. Miller Livery Stable. It's located around the corner from Emerson School of Hospitality, its sister school on West Chippewa Street. About 900 students attend the two schools, The News reported previously.Â
