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Buffalo Public Schools revise visitor rules following recent mass shooting

A classroom of Buffalo Public Schools children.
File Photo
/
WBFO News

Buffalo Public Schools announced Wednesday on Facebook that all visitors to district schools must call ahead and get prior approval before they will be allowed into any school. The new BPS policy applies to parents, caregivers, siblings and vendors. The district says it will not make any exceptions to the policy.

This comes as a response to the mass shooting at a Buffalo Tops supermarket on May 14 and the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on May 24. As of May 25, 10 adults were killed and 3 people injured in the Buffalo shooting, and at least 19 children and 2 adults died and 3 adults and 3 children are hospitalized with injuries after the Uvalde shooting, according to NBC News.

The district says it plans to have Buffalo Police and BPS Security present in and around their schools for an “undetermined amount of time.”

Visitors with prior approval entering the school will have to announce their name and the name of their child at the buzzer before being let in. BPS says the doors at all schools will be locked during the school day, with cameras at the front doors of each school. Visitors may be searched as well upon entry.

The school district says these extra protocols will be in place for all end-of-year ceremonies as well.

Emyle Watkins is an investigative journalist covering disability for WBFO.