When Buffalo Police SVU Detective Richard Hy unveiled allegations of the Buffalo Public Schools stonewalling law enforcement and covering up allegations of abuse, the media went on the attack. That’s to be expected.
However, they went after Hy, not the Buffalo schools. They talked about his supposedly rocky past, though none of the allegations against him had anything to do with his credibility. They were attacking the messenger.
It was a disgusting display by so-called journalists.
What’s more, at least some of the media should have realized that there just might be something to what Hy was saying. After all, Hy might not have a sparkling past, but Buffalo Public Schools’ past is far rockier than the social media influencer and cop’s might be.
WIVB has been one of the notable examples of what I’d term as poor reporting in this case, yet in 2023, they ran a story about a civil suit. Why does that matter? Oh, let’s just take a guess:
A Buffalo elementary school principal is off the job, accused of abusing a child who attends the school.
The notice of claim, which indicates the family’s intention to sue, names the defendants as the Buffalo Board of Education, the George Blackman School of Excellence and Dr. Greg Johnson, the principal of the school.
The alleged abuse is said to have happened over the course of six months. These accusations are being made in a notice of claim filed by the alleged victim’s father and their attorney.
The family of a student at the school claims that Johnson sexually abused and bullied the child on multiple occasions. The attorney for the family, Rich Hall says the first incident was during a school trip to Cradle Beach in early November. The family says their child was sexually assaulted during that overnight stay.
…
The notice of claim says the district was negligent in its hiring of Dr. Johnson and its supervision of students when they were around Dr. Johnson. The document says the district failed to fire Dr. Johnson after the incident in November which forced the child to still see Dr. Johnson.
Interesting, don’t you think? It’s almost like they didn’t do their jobs and address the incident right away, which is what Hy alleges happened in other cases.
So far as I can tell, this seems to be an ongoing civil action, which isn’t surprising. Civil cases can take years to clear up.
But that’s far from the only roadbump in the Buffalo Public Schools’ past.
In 2024, the Albany Times-Union reported that the Buffalo schools had an issue with corporal punishment, which is illegal under New York law, among other problems:
Buffalo City Schools, the state’s second largest district, has had a notable uptick in complaints and substantiated cases since January 2021. Since that time, the district had more than 100 instances where a reasonable suspicion of corporal punishment or child abuse was confirmed by a district investigation, according to information reported by the district to the state. That’s far more than any other school district, except for New York City.
The incidents include a teacher pressing a knee on the neck of a student on the ground, a teacher make sexually charged comments to students or watching pornography in their presence, an aide spanking a child, and a school security officer punching a child in the head and back with a closed fist, according to information the district reported to the state. Those matters were referred to the district’s human resources department for further action, the reports indicate.
Now, these are serious accusations, none of which should be acceptable. This is information, of course, that the schools provided the state, but their statement about these incidents looks awfully familiar to me:
“The district reviews all complaints and claims with the utmost seriousness,” said Jeffrey Hammond, a spokesman for Buffalo Public Schools. “The district then notifies human resources and law enforcement, if appropriate, to investigate claims of alleged wrongdoing. The district has implemented a reporting system that encourages all teachers and staff to report any suspected signs of abuse, as statutorily mandated by state Education Law.”
Of course, I have to be fair and acknowledge that these cases were reported. How much information actually got to investigators is up in the air, but they did get reported.
But another civil case, this one dating to 2019, involves a student who alleged his science teacher raped him repeatedly:
Andrew Bobeck’s lawsuit alleges a science teacher sexually abused him when he was 14 and 15 years old in the early 1980s when he was a student in the district.
The lawsuit says Robert Sewast forcibly touched, exposed and harassed Bobeck as many as five times a week for two years.
Shockingly, or maybe not, the court documents allege that the Buffalo Public Schools knew of what was happening and not only did nothing to end it, but covered it up.
And honestly, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Those who watched the last “Unsubscribe Podcast” may remember that Nic, AKA The Fat Electrician, had a binder full of allegations, including at least a couple of these that he mentioned. That led me down this particular rabbit hole, and I’m glad it did, because what I’m seeing here is absolutely insane.
This is a school system with what looks to me as a long history of doing exactly what Det. Richard Hy claims they’re doing now. While a history of an action isn’t a slam dunk, it’s sure as heck an indication that they’re not as clean as they want people to think, especially when you consider that at least some of this isn’t even about things that happened on campus.
In the initial reporting on this, there was a story of a girl who was being physically abused by her father. That happened off school property, yet it still took three incidents before they reported it.
Had it been reported through some other entity, it’s unlikely anyone would have been aware that the schools covered this up. How many other cases were ignored by mandatory reporters at the Buffalo Public Schools?
Meanwhile, in an interesting twist that validates at least some of Hy’s accusations, new charges have been filed in the alleged kidnapping attempt the SVU detective first talked about:
The man accused of breaking into a Buffalo elementary school in February now faces four felony charges – including attempted kidnapping – after being indicted by an Erie County grand jury.
Shane Cronin is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Erie County Court, according to court records.
According to court documents, the Illinois native faces new felony charges: second-degree attempted kidnapping; attempted luring of a child to commit a felony against that child; burglary; and attempted assault on school grounds. He’s still charged with misdemeanor child endangerment. The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment Monday.
Cronin, 30, was initially charged in Buffalo City Court.
When Cronin was first arrested by Buffalo police on Feb. 11, he was charged with felony burglary, misdemeanor assault and child endangerment, as well as harassment, a violation.
What do you know? It’s almost like making an armed robber feel bad because Hy called him “fat boy” had absolutely nothing to do with his credibility as an SVU detective.
