According to information obtained by The Washington Post, thousands of “dangerous devices” were seized from New York City public schools last year, including nearly 300 weapons.
School safety officers and officers confiscated 278 weapons during the 2023-24 school year, including guns, brass, knuckles and knives, according to law enforcement sources.
A total of 3,695 dangerous devices, including pepper sprays and box cutters, were seized during the same period, sources said.
The startling figures come as students are due to return to class on Thursday, the first day of the new semester.
Though shocking, the data represents a decrease from the 4,471 dangerous instruments and 476 weapons seized in fiscal year 2022-23, officials said.
Police officers point to gangs as a major cause of school violence.
“Schools can be powder kegs for crime,” one Manhattan police officer said. “Gangs are recruiting students. Teens are afraid they won't join.”
A Brooklyn police officer agreed: “Students may meet students from other neighborhoods or gangs, and that can cause problems.”
In one violent incident last year, a 16-year-old boy was attacked near his school on Staten Island by a group of unidentified boys believed to be members of the “400 Gang,” according to sources.
The suspected gang members hit the boy in the back of the head, knocked him to the ground and kicked and punched him, and threatened him with a box cutter, sources said.
Other school violence stems from interpersonal dramas that get out of control, sources said.
In one incident last year, a 16-year-old girl from Rockaway was punched in the face by another girl because she refused to talk to the assailant's boyfriend, officials said.
“There's always issues over girlfriends or ex-girlfriends that lead to fights,” one Queens police officer said.
The decline in weapons being carried into classrooms and hallways last year went hand in hand with a decline in incidents reported to police in and around public schools.
Sources said there will be 7,692 cases in 2023-24, down 13% from the 8,864 cases reported in the previous fiscal year.
“There are two ways to increase safety: more scanning and more school safety officers,” said Hank Sheinkopf, spokesman for Teamsters Local 237, the union that represents school safety officers.
An NYPD spokesman said school security officers were stepping up security ahead of the new school year.
According to officials, public schools will start this school year with 3,663 school safety officers, an increase of about 120 from the same time last year.
But some school safety officials said they are still concerned they don't have enough staffing to tackle the challenges of the new school year.
“There aren't enough guards to do their jobs properly,” one official said.
Another security guard said the city did not have enough guards to keep children safe on their way to and from school.
“Previously, we would have personnel stationed outside schools to provide safe passage for students heading home or to public transport. Now there aren't enough personnel to do that, and neither do the police,” the source said.
Some sources noted there have been previous cases where school administrators failed to properly report weapons seizures, skewing the figures downward.
In 2022, officials at a Queens middle school were stunned to discover a cache of deadly weapons in a safe in the principal's office, which had been kept instead of turned over to the NYPD as evidence to be counted, according to sources.
When JHS 125 administrators, including new Principal Michael Borelli, opened the locked box, they found more than a dozen knives of all kinds and what appeared to be a gun, sources said.
The new principal immediately notified the school's security officer, who issued a certificate of authenticity for the item and notified central command.
At the time, School Safety Director Greg Floyd said the findings suggested previous administrators had failed to properly report weapons, skewing the city's statistics.
“I've been saying for years that they've been hiding these things,” Floyd said. “Now we have evidence. How many schools have safes like this one where they store weapons without reporting it?”
The Department of Education and City Hall did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
