#educationreform

🚨 WHISTLEBLOWER SITUATION — BUFFALO, NY SCHOOL DISTRICT 🚨

Warnings: Mentions of SA, Abuse, and all the things that go with it

Is anyone talking about what's happening in the Buffalo Public School System in New York?

There are extremely disturbing allegations coming out involving abuse cover-ups—including SA (sexual assault), physical abuse, and outright neglect by school officials—and it seems like local media is barely touching it. The situation involves both elementary and high school students, and there’s reason to believe that legal pressure is being used to silence reports and protect the district, not the children.

What’s being reported (from a whistleblower/cop who works closely with abuse victims):

A break-in at a grade school resulted in an attempted kidnapping of two children under 9 (one boy, one girl).   ➤ The school never informed parents.   ➤ Video evidence was allegedly deleted.   ➤ One staff member secretly recorded the footage and sent it to district lawyers (with judge signatures!), and still… no action taken.

A high school girl told her counselor she was being physically abused by her father.   ➤ The counselor allegedly dismissed her due to a past lie about being “popular.”   ➤ Days later, she recorded her father beating her and showed the same counselor.   ➤ They still refused to report it.   ➤ Eventually, someone did—but not the mandated reporter. That’s illegal.

A 16-year-old male student is accused of sexually assaulting multiple 14-year-old girls.   ➤ No clear response from the school system.

The detective who came forward has worked with abused children for years. Instead of addressing the crimes or victims, local media turned their attention toward discrediting him—all because he spoke out on a podcast, not through “official” channels.

If true, this is a systemic failure. We’re talking about people in power actively silencing reports of child abuse, protecting institutions over kids, and failing legal obligations as mandated reporters. The public deserves to know—and these kids deserve to be protected.

Signal boost. Look into it. Demand accountability.

This hits to close to home for me because I was raped by a boy in my class, I was told he was 'a good guy' and 'couldn't have done it' and then he sent photos he took of me after he what he did to me; they did nothing about it, it was a year after the whole nude sexting law was put into place. Months later, I heard he did it again, to another girl, and then another school. A girl was traumatized because she was assaulted at school, and the teachers pretty much said that. "I don't get paid enough for me to care."

Though it wasn't the same state but it's in one of the nearby states.

Well-known things ALL public schools do:

-Public schools are bad, they let predators in more often than not, they move them around instead of reporting them (for YEARS).

-They generally believe the child is lying, do not report, or they go to the abusers and believe them more often than not, over the child.

-Teachers do 'hot-potato' with victims that do come to them, WITH ANYTHING.

-Pushes off to 'we will talk about this tomorrow' or 'look into it tomorrow', and do not report anything to law enforcement.

PODCAST

UPDATE 1

UPDATE 2

I received a text from a chat group I’m in sent this past Saturday morning: “Morning! My moms having vision boarding at her house today”. Wow God’s timing! I was planning on doing my faith vision board at some point so I’m glad this gift came sooner. Shoutout to Renee’s mom, Damali! Me and Renee with our boards.

Initially, I arrived and greeted everyone. Like busy bees all the ladies were cutting out powerful images and empowering words from the pile of Essence and Harvard School magazines among others while vibing to some music. On a side note: I spoke to a young woman who attended and she happened to mention that she had applied to LOTS of medical schools. As someone that is always rooting to see more Black MDs among other underrepresented groups in leadership positions within the medical field, I inquired more and pointed her to a center I had interned at that ran a program: BWH STARS catered to underrepresented junior & senior undergraduate students and first year medical students. Unfortunately they won’t be running the program in 2020, but will in Summer 2021. Be on the lookout!

My passion for empowering high school teens to college students stems from my subpar experience at the high school I attended. A dictatorial regime when it came to discipline, but lacked in properly readying students for college/alternative routes like trades or entrepreneurial activities. AmeriCorps tutors (majority white american) came on the scene my 1st year to spicen up their resumes and see what the “struggle” looked like for the Black and Latino students they would end up “saving” from the perils of the “inner city”. You see how crazy this sounds? Well, many unfortunately STILL have this mindset. And did I mention that many of us didn’t even fit the “stereotypical mold” of their wildest dreams _______ (fill in the blank stereotypes of Black and Latino groups). Sadly, as a Dominican teen I didn’t even have the slightest grasp of the various levels of racism, micro-aggressions and prejudices until years later. Thanks to taking sociology & public health courses, studying abroad, volunteering and domestic & international internship experiences (mainly by my own inquisitive nature) at university level the wheels began to turn for me. After graduating from university, I happened to reconnect with a few tutors whom witnessed and disclosed to me much of racist commentary most of their white American counterparts who thought they were saving “us” were exhibiting through a white savior complex lens. A Race and ethnic relations course (the class that changed my WHOLE life) should be made part of the mandatory curriculum required for all freshmen as English & Math were and still are. When it came to deciding the college of choice there was no detailed process of doing so as I, now, realize was so important. It felt like my high school preferred to bow down to the MCAS (Massachusetts standardized testing) rather than preparing us for the SATs and strategically navigating college (in order to atleast come out with the least or NO debt)! Most of my high school’s student demographic consisted of Black and Latino students, and per usual, we were given the short end of the stick when it came to the resources that were needed. I later learned that my high school was funded partially through public resources not just private. Fun Fact!

The young woman at this past weekend’s activity had shared that she was Haitian and explained her high school experience to me. Although in a private school, she noticed the disposable income most of the wealthy kids had as they were tutored at their own leisure while she was not allotted the same. She also mentioned the ridiculously low standards that Black youth were held at vs their white American counterparts. The power of the tongue is real-- speak death onto a person see how they turn out years later vs someone who gets life spoken into them. It’s that simple. At one point, we were like oh shoot we gotta finish our boards! I realized how particular my attention to detail was because when I looked around I saw everyone was finished. LOL

I ended up adding more to my faith vision board over the weekend. I came across a Stop & Shop recipe magazine and a real estate magazine at home (food and financial wealth) best of both worlds. I felt like Nemo recently because you know, life happens, even after you do these “pick me up” activities. Try to be the Dory to your family, friends and even strangers. 

Although I did not have the most fruitful high school experience I am grateful for what I have learned years later so in the present and future I can empower & engage!