Buffalo Media Target Police Whistleblower Warning City Schools Unsafe

Nicholas Fondacaro
April 28th, 2025 4:47 PM

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Over the weekend, Buffalo Police SVU Detective Richard Hy appeared on the popular Unsubscribe Podcast and blew the whistle on Buffalo Public Schools with accusations that officials had destroyed evidence of an attempted abduction at one school, obstructed investigations of child sexual assault, and looked the other way for child abuse until it was too late. But instead of pouring resources into looking into the allegations, Buffalo media chose to make Hy, a long time hate-object of theirs, the target of their reporting.

In the podcast episode titled “Your Kids Are In Danger - SVU Detective Exposes Buffalo School System,” Hy made several allegations against Buffalo Public Schools; sharing several incidents he and his fellow officers had to deal with.

 

 

“The Buffalo School System has been intentionally not reporting the se–[bleep] assaults of students – between students – and has then also used the Buffalo Police Department’s School Resource Officers to write reports and then had their influence over those officers to then close the reports,” he said.

In one alleged incident, there was an attempted abduction of a two students “under the age of 10” (a male and female, at the same time) at Charles R. Drew Science Magnet School. Hy got emotional as he explained how the parent who came to pick up the male student was not informed of the attempted abduction, even after asking why the child had urinated himself.

“The school then deleted the video of the attempted abduction,” he said; commending a quick-witted official who managed to record a video while officials played back the security footage, and turned it over to the district attorney.

The response by the local Buffalo media was appalling.

During the coverage on WKBW’s (an ABC News affiliate) Good Morning Buffalo on Monday, anchor Ed Drantch tried to discredit the allegations because they were made on podcast that wasn’t his cup of tea. The Unsubscribe Podcast was geared toward veterans, military history nerds, gun enthusiasts, gamers, and anime lovers.

 

 

“So, I’ll be honest with you. I started watching this podcast and my first thought was ‘this is ridiculous,’ ‘this is crazy.’ Listening to all these guys burp and be absolutely foul,” Drantch whined. “My first thought is ‘okay, this can’t actually be real.’” After noting that Hy was a well-known public figure, he added: “maybe he has a little bit of credence here, but it’s a lot of credence.”

Drantch’s co-host, Taylor Anthony seemed to suggest Hy’s comments were just drunken ramblings or conspiracy theories. “What is this?” she huffed. “You’re looking at the like the White Claws on the table. Is alcohol involved here? Where are they?”

Their outrage at Hy made no sense since in 2018 they did a report on abuse coverups at a Buffalo school. Meanwhile, over the weekend, WKBW actually sat down with Hy to do their own interview.

Responding to their disgust with his chose of venue to blow the whistle, Hy posted on X: “I went on the podcast because I felt comfortable to open up in that setting. Rightfully so, considering the medias reaction.”

 

 

The X account for the Unsubscribe Podcast wrote: “God forbid a detective who is clearly distraught over things happening in his city feels comfortable bringing such a serious topic to the public amongst friends.”

Later adding: “I wonder why he felt more comfortable speaking on a podcast and not through the mainstream media…”

 

 

The local NBC affiliate, WGRZ took the side of Buffalo Public Schools immediately by first publishing BPP’s response to the allegations over 24-hours before reporting on the allegations themselves. On April 26 at 8:48 p.m., they published this report titled: “BPS says it's 'prepared to vigorously address these untruths' made in online video.” It took them until 11:17 p.m. on April 27 to publish an article titled: “Police officer alleges Buffalo Public Schools abuse cover-up.”

As for the local CBS affiliate, WIVB, they spilled a bunch of ink attacking Hy’s history as a Buffalo Police officer. 227 of their 714-word report (almost 32 percent) were spent on trying to smear Hy rather than grill the school district.

Buffalo-based radio station WBEN went a different path by actually speaking with a parent who sided with Hy. “I am thankful that that Detective [Richard Hy] came forward. The district has a history of covering up. I deal with a lot of special ed parents and we have a lot of problems in Special Ed where students are placed in improper classrooms. This doesn't surprise me one bit,” the station quoted parent Ed Speidel.

Speidel had another story to share about alleged misconduct by BPP: “I know of a mom who reported her young child was assaulted by a substitute teacher and the district will not give the teacher's name, so that the mom can press charges. It's disturbing the lack of transparency that comes out of Buffalo Public Schools.”

 

 

In their response to the accusations, BPP curiously called Hy’s accusations “untruths.” Their post drew a X community note.

On the podcast, Hy anticipated the backlash. “You ready to get sued?!” he quipped. Getting serious, he set the stage for what could be brought against him and why he was proceeding: “This is real and this can affect my life, but it's at the moment where it's one of those things where you gotta do the right thing or not.”

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