The knives are out in city schools.
More kids were busted for knives and boxcutters in the fourth quarter of last year than in any quarter over the past two years, according to NYPD statistics.
The number of blades recovered during school incidents over that stretch jumped by 55 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the data.
A total of 112 knives and boxcutters were recovered during dustups over the final three months of 2017, compared with 72 over the same stretch the previous year, the numbers show.
And those figures don’t tell the whole story.
In its quarterly school-crime reports, the NYPD only includes knives and boxcutters recovered during “incidents” involving cops or school safety officers.
The overall number of confiscated weapons is higher.
The city’s first classroom killing since 1993 occurred last year when Abel Cedeno stabbed Matthew McCree at a Bronx high school. Cedeno’s lawyer claims the teen acted in self-defense.
Cedeno, 18, snuck the weapon, a spring-loaded switchblade, into Urban Assembly for Wildlife Conservation last September before the fatal confrontation.
During October, November and December of last year, 51 knives were confiscated from students, along with 61 boxcutters, which are categorized separately.
In addition, other weapons possession cases spiked by 48 percent in the last quarter of 2017 compared with the same stretch in 2016, from 25 to 37.
The NYPD launched its current tracking system in 2016; prior figures are not available.
The jump in weapons busts comes amid assertions by the Department of Education that city schools are citadels of security.
The DOE and Mayor de Blasio have pointed to steep drops in major crimes during his administration.
De Blasio proclaimed the last academic year to be the safest on record and noted that major crimes were down 18 percent since the 2014-2015 school year.
But those portrayals have been marred by rising weapons numbers and claims from critics that staffers and administrators are suppressing incidents to varnish statistics.
Overall, weapons seizures have risen 26.7 percent during de Blasio’s reign, according to NYPD stats.
During the 2016-2017 school year, 2,120 weapons were recovered, including guns, knives and boxcutters.
That was up 3.3 percent from the prior year when 2,053 weapons were seized.
“There is no place for weapons of any kind in our schools, and we work in close partnership with NYPD to ensure our school buildings are safe,” said DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot.