'We want to feel safe': the student explained why children bring weapons to school

According to a 17-year-old student at Adams Street High School in downtown Brooklyn, school has always been safe for her. The problem is getting there, reports New York Daily News.

Last week, the girl's classmate brought in school loaded weapon, and the management of the establishment quickly and successfully coped with this. But on Ineri Peña's 40-minute ride to and from school, she doesn't feel safe at all.

Peña said that after a man recently crept up behind her and tried to rub against her at a metro station, she started carrying pepper spray with her.

"We are not criminals"

That's why Peña was upset when a team of NYPD security agents showed up at her school the day after the gun incident with metal detectors to scan the students at the entrance. In one day, agents confiscated 21 weapons, including nine pepper spray, seven knives, four stun guns and a pair of knuckle dusters.

“We are not criminals, we are just trying to protect ourselves in a city that has become unsafe for us,” Peña said.

The seizures of weapons sparked a wave of news in the media. Some students and teachers considered it unfair to treat their school and its students as dangerous.

The disciples were crying

“A lot of them [students] were crying,” said Annie Annunziato, deputy principal of one of the schools on the Adams Street campus.

“There were 11 and 12 year olds who were forced to undergo a scan and did not understand why. In addition, there is media coverage portraying them as criminals. The media say the school is unsafe, but this is not true, ”she added. According to Annunziato, most of the weapons were confiscated from the girls, many of these items were given to them. parents.

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Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, which represents school security agents, denied the students' claims. He accused the leaders and students of "lying about the reasons they brought these items to school in an attempt to justify themselves."

«It's illegal, you shouldn't have it. You can't go to school with pepper spray, ”he said. - If you spray pepper spray in a school where your child has asthma, it can trigger an attack. Even school security agents don't carry pepper spray. There are reasons for these rules. "

Some students and staff at the Adams Street campus are concerned about the long-term implications of the school's reputation as a “dangerous” school. This can affect the popularity of the institution among students and parents.

“Now some teachers may not want to come to our school, or parents may not want to send their children here,” said Emily Piemps, a 17-year-old student at the school.

School Carrying Statistics Rise

Incidents weapons recovered at school have increased across the city since the first full resumption of face-to-face classes this fall - up 30% from 2019. In 2020, schools were closed due to the pandemic.

Authorities found eight pistols in schools between July 1 and October 24 this year, the most recent date on which NYPD provided data. During the same period in 2019, only one pistol was seized. In 2018 - two. But most of the weapons seized from students fell into what school authorities call self-defense devices.

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The number of stun guns confiscated in schools has grown almost sevenfold compared to the same periods in 2018 and 2019. The number of items categorized as "other" - which includes pepper sprays - jumped to 224 this year, up from 86 in 2018 and 52 in 2019.

Aliya Nesbitt, a 16-year-old student, at the request of her mother, began to carry a pepper spray with her.

“Because of everything that has been happening in the city during the two years of the pandemic, I feel like she needs something to protect her,” said Nesbitt's mom, who declined to give her name.