A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges Buffalo Public Schools and former Superintendent Kriner Cash either knew or should have known that there was potential for violence before a 14-year-old McKinley High School student was stabbed and beaten and a security guard was shot Feb. 9 in McKinley's parking lot.
But both Cash and the school district failed to act to prevent it, the complaint contends.
Attorney John Elmore filed the suit on behalf of Aurielle Austin, the mother of McKinley student Sirgio Jeter, who was stabbed 10 times after school at McKinley, and listed in critical condition and hospitalized for three weeks. Jeter had accompanied his cousin, who received threats from a fellow student earlier in the day, to the parking lot when the fight broke out.
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"No parent expects their child to go to school and be at risk of extreme violence," said Kristen Elmore-Garcia, Elmore's daughter and attorney in the firm, on Wednesday. Elmore-Garcia added that the civil complaint does not identify a specific sum of money, as Jeter's suffering "is still ongoing" and his medical expenses are accumulating. Austin has also experienced emotional suffering and missed work to care for her son, the attorney said.
"We also believe the school district is responsible for punitive damages, and the costs of litigating the case plus interest," Elmore-Garcia said.
"Common sense would dictate that the administration of the school would make sure that this child had safe passage from school at the end of the day, and they neglected to do that," said John V. Elmore, attorney for Aurielle Austin, Sirgio Jeter's mother.
The legal team representing Cash and BPS must answer the civil complaint within 30 days. The complaint followed a late February "notice of claim" from Elmore's office that is required for a civil lawsuit against a public entity such as Buffalo Public Schools. The two 17-year-old suspects in the attack, Rismay Tee and Kushal Tamang, face separate criminal charges from the Erie County District Attorney's Office related to the stabbing and shooting.
"Our collective hearts hurt for the student that was injured as a result of the violence outside of McKinley High School on February 9, 2022, and we wish him well as he continues his recovery," said Ka'Ron Barnes, a spokesperson for Buffalo Public Schools, who added that due to the pending suit the district would not comment further. Elmore-Garcia said Jeter will attend school this fall but declined to identify where.
Among the warning signs the suit said Cash and BPS did not heed was a Dec. 9 message from Phil Rumore, president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation, claiming McKinley High School had experienced 40 violent incidents since the start of the school year, and urging more school employees such as counselors, psychologists, social workers and school resource officers to be hired.
Such omissions are not merely paperwork glitches. The state uses those incident reports to determine which schools are persistently dangerous. Students at those schools are supposed to be given the option to transfer to a safer school. But that rarely happens.
Further signs were not heeded during school Feb. 9, the complaint continued, citing a meeting McKinley's acting Principal Karen Kibler and Vice Principal Solomon Jackson had with Jeter's cousin about a half-hour before the attack. During the meeting, threatening text messages toward Jeter's cousin were revealed, yet no safety precautions – like contacting the parents of the threatened student – were taken to protect Jeter's cousin , the complaint alleged. Jeter's cousin was not injured in the fight, according to previous reports.
The complaint contends BPS and Cash were negligent in specific duties that would typically create a safe school environment:
• Failing to supervise students
• Negligence in hiring and training faculty, staff and administration
• Failing to secure school grounds
• Failing to suspend, properly discipline and counsel students who committed violent acts
• Ignoring threatening behavior from students
• Ignoring complaints made by parents, teachers and teachers union representatives
• Allowing bullying, fighting and violent behavior from students to escalate
• Negligently investigating incidents of student violence
• Failing to maintain a disciplined, safe and organized school climate
• Negligently allowing a culture of violence to develop within the schools
Superintendent Tonja Williams unveiled the tenets of her Strategic Plan for 2022-25, accompanied by the slogan "Equity For All In All That We Do."
Nine days after the McKinley attack, the Buffalo Teachers Federation voted "no confidence" in Cash, who signed a termination agreement with Buffalo Public Schools on March 2. New Superintendent Tonja M. Williams emphasized updated school safety protocols in her Strategic Plan, a direct result of the incident at McKinley, she said.
Ben Tsujimoto can be reached at btsujimoto@buffnews.com, at (716) 849-6927 or on Twitter at @Tsuj10.
