Dozens Of Weapons Confiscated From Students At Brooklyn School In Last 3 Days
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City schools have been experiencing a dramatic increase in weapons seizures, but nothing like what officials have seized at just one Brooklyn campus.
In the last three days, they have confiscated 38 weapons, and that doesn't include two bags of marijuana or the student who came to school with over $30,000 in cash and a loaded gun.
Students at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, a law-themed city high school near the courts in Downtown Brooklyn, were ordered Friday to put the contents of their pockets in their book bags so they could be scanned for weapons.
It was the second day of unannounced scanning at the school, and it turned up 16 weapons -- six stun guns, nine pepper-spray cans and one knife. Two bags of marijuana were also found.
But that's nothing. Thursday, the scanning turned up 21 weapons in the book bags kids brought to school -- four stun guns, seven pepper-spray cans, nine knives and one set of brass knuckles.
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The scanning was ordered a day after officials caught a student with a fully loaded 9 millimeter handgun and over $30,000 in cash.
CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer asked Gregory Floyd, the head of the school safety agents union, what's going on.
"A lot of children are bringing weapons to schools because they know the gangs are bringing weapons to school and they have to protect themselves. If New York City, if the mayor, the police department, parents, politicians won't protect the children, they will have to protect themselves and that's how they feel. They feel abandoned," Floyd said.
Although school officials are reluctant to reveal the extent of the problem, the weapons seizures at the Adams Street campus -- actually three schools with 1,000 students -- reflect an increase in weapons seizures citywide.
There was a nearly 30% increase in seizures from July through Oct. 24, compared to the same periods in 2018 and 2019. The number of tasers and stun guns increased sevenfold -- 12 a year in 2018 and 2019 to 84 this year.
Floyd blames the mayor and city and state politicians. So does Joe Giacalone, a retired NYPD detective and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
"The kids don't feel safe anymore because of rising crime and violence. Shootings are up, homicides are up, so more kids are carrying guns because they're afraid for themselves, and the second thing is that there is very little deterrence," Giacalone said.
"It's a failure to realize the crisis that we have in this city," Floyd said.
Floyd says it's too late for Mayor Bill de Blasio to do something. He says the next mayor and police commissioner will have to do it.
He points out that only 89 schools have metal detectors. There are over 1,700 schools in the city, including 520 high schools.
A spokesman for the Department of Education praised the safety agents who recovered the weapons.
