While Chancellor David Banks spoke of a bright future for New York's public schools this week, surveys of the city's students paint a darker picture: More students are reporting being bullied, feeling unhappy and at risk.
In a city education bureau poll of 355,105 elementary, middle and high school students conducted this spring, 51% said harassment, bullying or intimidation by classmates was commonplace, up from 48% of students last year.
Twenty-seven percent of students said gang activity sometimes or usually occurs at their school, up 2 percentage points from last year.
The Department for Education survey found more children are feeling unsafe or unhappy, with 20% of children disagreeing with the statement “I felt safe most days when I was at school”, up 3% from 2023. And 26% of children reject the statement “I felt happy most days when I was at school”, up from 24% a year ago.
A Manhattan teenager said that less than two weeks into school, he's already heard classmates claiming to be gang members, demanding cash and making threats like “I'm going to kill you.”
“It makes me feel scared,” said Jenny, 15, a freshman at Stephen T. Mather Building Arts and Craftsmanship High School in Hell's Kitchen.
Another teenager who attends Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology, which is in the same West 49th Street building, said it's hard to tell who's bluffing and who's really in the gang.
“I think most of them are wannabes, but you never know,” said Mason, a 15-year-old high school senior.
Fear seems to go hand in hand with the rise in gangs and guns in schools.
“There have been a lot of school shootings here and there so far this year, which has made students feel even more overwhelmed and anxious coming to school,” Mason explained.
On Thursday, two students were found with guns at Flushing High School in Queens, and a teenager was shot on a Staten Island playground a block from the school. On Friday, a 16-year-old boy was found with a gun at Mott Hall High School in Harlem, police said.
In May, two boys were slashed inside Mason School, one in the face and the other in the torso.
Children have been traumatized ever since, one second-grader said.
“My mom told me to change schools because of it,” says 15-year-old Maru.
The alarming findings were quietly released in August.
As students across the city feel scared during class, new statistics show serious crime in schools is on the rise.
According to the mayor's management report, robberies on campus increased 18% from 28 last year to 33 in fiscal year 2024, which ends June 30. Felony theft increased 20% from 156 in 2023 to 187 in 2024, and felony assault increased 2% from 136 this year to 139.
Citywide, crimes against victims 17 and under increased 14% starting in fiscal year 2023, according to NYPD data in the report.
“Schools have a huge problem with a high number of incidents in every neighborhood and an overall increase in gang violence, bullying and crime,” said Mona David, co-founder of the New York City School Safety Coalition, noting that weapons are being seized from schools at “alarming rates.”
She argued that Banks' “lax” policies of not holding students accountable and Department of Education administrators who don't fully report incidents for fear of damaging the school's reputation are also part of the problem.
Here are some of the worst examples of bad behavior in New York City schools…
A spring survey of the city's elementary, middle and high school students by the Department of Education found an increase in the number of students reporting anxiety, bullying, being surrounded by gangs and feeling generally unhappy.
Here are some of the worst examples of inappropriate behavior in city schools.
- An 11-year-old girl attending Mark Twain Middle School for Gifted and Talented Students in Coney Island endured chronic bullying last school year, including physical assaults at school and online, while education officials did little to stop it. “It's a scary time in this country to be sending your child to school for a variety of reasons, including the high crime rate in the city. This is simply not acceptable in what is supposed to be the best country in the world,” the girl's father told The Washington Post this week.
- On May 14, four students were involved in three separate stabbing incidents over the course of just over an hour at New York City schools: two students slashed each other in the face and torso at a school facility in Hell's Kitchen, another student was stabbed in a gang attack at the Evander Childs Education Campus in the Bronx, and a fourth student was stabbed at the Queens School of Advanced Learning, Liberal Arts and Sciences.
- After a 15-year-old boy stabbed another student in the abdomen at Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood on Dec. 5, students were searched as they entered the school the next day, and 13 knives, seven pepper spray canisters and a box cutter were found.
- As the New York Post reported in June, Jewish students at three of the city's nine elite specialized high schools — Brooklyn Tech, Stuyvesant and Bronx Science — were subjected to brutal bullying last school year, with classmates making Nazi salutes and accusing them of participating in “genocide” against Palestinians, while school administrators and teachers spewed pro-Palestinian propaganda.
“At the end of the day, kids are scared and kids can't learn in an unsafe environment — they're not learning. That's a big problem,” Davids said.
At Edward R. Murrow High School in Midwood, where 13 knives, seven pepper spray canisters and a box cutter were seized after a male student stabbed another student in December, one high school senior said teens are increasingly divided by gang affiliation.
“Our school is very divided among stakeholders. [in gangs] “And there are a lot of cultural differences between people, so I don't think it helps solve bullying or other issues,” explained the 16-year-old girl, who asked not to be named.
International conflicts have made life harder for children in New York, she said.
“There is a lot of debate [the Israel-Hamas] “War creates conflict like violent arguments,” she added.
Forty-two percent of students said cyberbullying is a regular occurrence, up from 38% in 2023. Meanwhile, bullying based on race, religion, ethnicity, language or immigration status is also a common issue, cited by 38% of students in 2024, up from 34% last year.
Harassment based on body size or disability was an issue for 39% of kids in this year's survey, rising to 35% in 2023.
“I feel like I'm not getting enough mental support or resources from my school. They tell me to talk to a guidance counselor, but my guidance counselor never contacts me. They don't do anything,” said Assata, 16, a junior at Mallow High School.
Jim Walden, a civil rights lawyer who sued the Department of Education in 2016 on behalf of parents whose children had been tormented and beaten by bullies, called the statistics “alarming.”
“The fact that bullying complaints are on the rise is a worrying sign,” Walden said.
Department for Education spokeswoman Jenna Lyle said parents have access to an online bullying reporting system and students “have access to a range of support available at school”.
“At the end of the day, it's not only the responsibility but the expectation of all adults to provide support to students in need,” she said.
Additional reporting by Deirdre Bardolph, Susan Edelman and Larry Cerona.
