15-year-old boy seriously injured in stabbing at New York high school

Police are investigating a stabbing Monday at a high school in Buffalo, New York, where there have been numerous violent incidents in recent years.

Authorities said a 15-year-old boy was stabbed three times by another student in the attack, sustaining injuries to his neck, back and arm. He was taken to hospital by ambulance while the school was on lockdown and is now in “serious but stable” condition, police said at a news conference.

Police said they arrested two people and recovered the knife used in the attack. Investigators are working with the district attorney’s office to determine appropriate charges against the individuals, police said.

The fight took place in a stairwell between classes and was captured on the school’s security camera system. The individuals involved fled to a classroom on the third floor while a security guard quickly helped the victim to the infirmary. Police later took the suspects into custody.

Detectives say the incident follows another stabbing earlier this summer involving the same individuals, so they do not believe it was a random attack.

McKinley High School is located on Elmwood Avenue, not far from Buffalo State University, the Buffalo AKG Museum of Art, and the Richardson Olmsted Campus. In recent years, there have been numerous violent incidents there.

In February 2022, a 14-year-old student was stabbed ten times – nine times in the chest and abdomen and once in the leg – and a security guard was shot in the leg after an argument between several people at the high school. A 13-year-old student was also shot in the side during the incident.

Joseph Marciniak, a history teacher at McKinley, told Scripps News Buffalo at the time that the school was “dangerous, bordering on child abuse” because of what students have experienced at the school, especially since Marck Abraham became principal in 2017.

Multiple sources told Scripps News Buffalo that under Abraham’s leadership, violence increased, misbehavior went unchallenged, and teachers were punished. In January 2018, the Buffalo Teachers Federation filed an unprecedented motion of censure against Abraham, but then-Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash supported it.

In February 2019, a student assaulted a McKinley teacher, leaving him with an inch-long wound. The teacher told Scripps News Buffalo anonymously that the district “ultimately sided with the student and decided that I was the one who should be fired.” The district’s legal counsel later told Scripps News Buffalo that it chose to transfer the teacher “to protect his own safety.”

Earlier this year, parents called on Buffalo schools to address violence at McKinley High School after multiple videos showed fights breaking out in the hallways. Superintendent Tonja Williams responded that she had “no higher priority for our students than safety” and that staff and the community needed to work together to address these issues.

This story was originally published on Scripps News Buffalo.