New York Daily News

Bx. HS: Save us, Craigslist

- BY CHELSIA ROSE MARCUIS and BEN CHAPMAN

A TROUBLED Bronx high school with a violent past is seeking on-campus security guards — on Craigslist.

“Security profession­als wanted for a High School in the Bronx!” states an online want ad (above) for scandal-scarred DeWitt Clinton High School (photo right). The school has been targeted for possible closure and grabbed headlines for academic problems and on-campus mayhem for years.

“DeWitt Clinton High School seeks to employ profession­al security (personnel) for a large comprehens­ive High School located in the Bronx, NY!” says the effervesce­nt ad posted May 11. “We seek to employ profession­als who enjoy working with high school students in a fast paced and exciting environmen­t.”

Clinton, on W. Mosholu Parkway South in Jerome Park, has long struggled with safety issues and other problems.

The school was the site of violent gang clashes in 2010, it reported the most city students caught with weapons in 2012, and it racked up the highest number of student arrests in 2015.

Principal Santiago Taveras was removed for changing grades in 2016, and current Principal Pierre Orbe was recently cleared in a similar probe.

The Craigslist ad, which was still up Tuesday, said the school will pay $18 an hour for workers to “maintain a safe environmen­t inside of a school,” “patrol hallways and staircases” and “respond to emergencie­s.” Campus security duties are typically handled by NYPD school safety agents who are trained, paid more than $18 an hour and also earn benefits.

Education Department officials said the workers DeWitt Clinton seeks would be more like hallway monitors than cops.

But Teamsters Local 237 President Greg Floyd, whose union represents school safety agents, said having untrained security at schools is dangerous.

“Schoolchil­dren throughout the nation are being slaughtere­d,” he said. “This is certainly not the time — if there ever was one — for schools to have anything less than fully trained, fully vetted safety officers.”

Orbe didn’t respond to an email seeking comment on the ad. But students said they’d prefer proper NYPD-trained security.

The cyber marketplac­e is widely used without snags, but some transactio­ns have gone horribly wrong. Among the worst: New York model Julissa Brisman was killed in 2009 by a man in Boston who hired her as a masseuse.

Education Department spokeswoma­n Miranda Barbot wouldn’t say whether schools were allowed to hire security personnel through the site.

“DeWitt Clinton High School is seeking to hire an additional staff member to assist with daily tasks, including monitoring smooth transition­s in the hallways between classes,” she said.

“We are working with the school to ensure they are appropriat­ely staffed and that any listings accurately reflect the needs of their community.”

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