By Bernadette Hogan and Selim Algar
The troubling surge in student weapons busts is an “indictment” on the state of crime in the Big Apple, Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday in response to an exclusive Post report.
Weapons seizures in schools are up by 80 percent this year, compared to pre-pandemic levels — including a marked rise in gun, knife and Taser confiscations, according to NYPD data.
“It’s an indictment on our city when a child must carry a Taser, a stun gun or a gun,” Adams said at an unrelated press conference. “That is not acceptable.”
On Tuesday, The Post reported that NYPD data shows Taser seizures are up 600 percent and knife busts have increased by 25 percent this year, when compared to the 2019-2020 school year.
In addition, 14 guns — many of them loaded — have been recovered inside Department of Education buildings so far this academic year.
That compares to just one gun recovery over that same stretch prior to the pandemic.
Adams rejected the notion that students are theoretically justified in carrying weapons due to rising citywide crime rates.
“I’m not accepting anyone stating they’re going to carry a weapon because they don’t feel safe,” he said. “That’s a slippery slope.”
Adams also again referenced the imminent use of a new “device” that would help find weapons in schools in a “humane” fashion, but didn’t give further details.
Hizzoner added that he is open to replenishing the thinned ranks of city school safety agents. Greg Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, said their numbers are down by 25 percent over the course of the pandemic.
That erosion — coupled with rising weapons busts — is a “recipe for disaster,” Floyd said.
In its preliminary budget, City Hall proposed the elimination of 500 currently vacant safety agent positions.
Adams said he could re-examine that move if conditions deteriorate in the nation’s largest school system.
“Remember that was a preliminary budget and if we see the need to make modifications,” he said, “we’re open to doing that.”
Read on the NY Post website at https://nypost.com/2022/02/23/mayor-eric-adams-slams-student-weapons-busts/