Opinion

Lying to New York’s parents about soaring school violence

Violence in the city’s schools has soared to its highest levels in at least a decade — even as Mayor Bill de Blasio tells New Yorkers schools are safer.

This month, the mayor hailed a 29 percent drop in school crime since the 2010-11 academic year. That now looks like a carefully misleading statistic.

On Thursday, Families for Excellent Schools used state data to highlight actual trends in city schools. The number of violent incidents shot up a whopping 23 percent last year (the first full year under Mayor de Blasio) — from 12,978 to 15,934.

That’s far more than in any year since at least 2004-05. And it includes troubling spikes in assaults, sex-related offenses, weapons possession and other crimes.

Yet de Blasio’s still spewing happy talk: His answer to the state data was to insist that “overall we have reduced violent incidents.”

Such claims are about as meaningful as one of those worthless diplomas Team de Blasio keeps handing out. City Hall’s count excludes many incidents. For last year, for example, it lists just 6,875 cases, less than half the state number.

“The state’s data immediately calls into question the mayor’s credibility on school safety,” says FES’s Jeremiah Kittredge. De Blasio is “deceiving parents” by hiding “how dangerous the schools really are.”

The city’s book-cooking fits a pattern: Last year, recall, The Post caught several schools fixing grades and passing kids who did little or no work, to goose graduation rates.

What’s fueling the surge in violence? Well, it’s noteworthy that de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Fariña have drastically loosened discipline policies.

As we asked last November, when the city unveiled its “Roadmap To Reduce Punitive School Discipline and Make Schools Safer”: “How on Earth does reducing discipline make schools safer?”

De Blasio & Co. may not care if their policies work — not when they can just fudge the results.

No matter that they’re lying to parents about the safety of their kids.