A group of parents and activists rallied Friday in the Bronx to expand the presence of NYPD school safety agents after authorities recovered five guns in two days at schools.
The NYC School Safety Coalition — a group that formed in response to Mayor de Blasio’s proposal to shift school safety supervision from the NYPD to the Education Department — argued that safety agents have been instrumental in the recovery of the five firearms across three boroughs on Wednesday and Thursday.
Between July 1 and October 17 of this year, before the recent rash of gun seizures, three firearms were recovered in city schools, compared to one each during the same period in 2019 and 2018, according to NYPD statistics. The five guns found this week bring this school year’s total to eight.
The activists said more school cops need to be hired.
“If they were not there this week, who would have found those guns? Not a guidance counselor, not a social worker, not a teacher,” said Mona Davids, a veteran parent organizer and head of the school safety coalition.
“Our school safety agents are unarmed, they are civil servants, they protect our children, and I think they have more than proven themselves this week,” she added.
Leandro Coello, an activist and former City Council candidate who worked as a DOE school administrator and has kids in public school, added that in his experience, safety agents “are some of the most important, if not most important individuals in the schools when it comes to safety.”
Two of the five guns were found thanks to metal detector screenings, according to police. Two other guns were reported by classmates or parents. One was found on a student during a fight.
Police said Friday that arrests have been made in all five of the gun seizures. Two 17-year-olds, one 15-year-old, and one 14-year-old were arrested for charges including criminal criminal possession of a weapon and having a loaded firearm on school grounds. The suspects’ names weren’t released because of their ages.
A fifth teenager, 18-year-old Angel Tussen of the Bronx, was arrested and charged with bringing a loaded gun to the Adlai Stevenson high school building in the Bronx. The firearm was discovered during a metal detector scan, according to police.
The activists oppose the proposal to transfer school safety to the DOE — which is supposed to take effect next year — as well as a decision not to hire a new class of roughly 500 safety agents this year.
The city did hire a class of 250 agents in August, but they are still in training, which lasts for 17 weeks.
DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer said “weapons of any kind have no place in our schools, and our educators work hand-in-hand every day with outstanding school safety agents to provide safe, supportive environments for every student. Every day we work with the NYPD to provide additional SSA and police coverage and institute random scanning where necessary.”
Speakers tied the rash of gun discoveries to the uptick in youth gun violence across the city and encouraged likely incoming mayor Eric Adams to meet with them to discuss solutions. The group is pushing for metal detectors in every school and the creation of an emergency school safety task force that includes safety agents and parent representatives.
Critics argue that police at schools disproportionately target Black and Hispanic students, creating a punitive environment for kids.
