NYC ‘hider’ education
Lipstick Tasers & comb knife in HS’s
Staffers at two Brooklyn high schools recovered two Tasers disguised as lipstick and a knife fashioned as a comb on Tuesday.
The shiny metallic Tasers — encrusted with faux diamonds — were spotted by metal detectors and taken from two female students at the Thomas Jefferson HS building in East New York.
The kids attended Performing Arts and Technology HS, which is co-located with other schools.
School-safety agents also recovered three blades at nearby Franklin Lane HS — includ- ing a knife disguised as a colorful comb.
All three of those weapons were detected through scanners from kids at the co-located Uncommon Leadership charter school.
“School must be safe havens, and in both of the unrelated incidents the items were immediately and safely recovered,” said DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer.
Several of the students said they carried the items to protect themselves through the course of their day. Another student said she was given her knife by her former place of employment.
Tuesday’s discoveries come after a teacher found a machete outside PS 389 in East New York last week.
Only a fraction of city highschool students are currently attending class in their buildings since they reopened last month.
NYPD Deputy Chief Olufunmilola Obe warned of a hike in weapons recoveries in a memo to schoolsafety agents last month, but weapons recoveries have spiked in recent weeks as in-person learning picks up.
“The undersigned has observed an increase in the amount of weapons and dangerous instruments recovered on school grounds,” she wrote.
A total of 25 weapons were recovered over the course of five days last month, Obe reported.
The long-standing debate over the presence of metal detectors in city schools — and the role of school-safety agents — has intensified over the past year.
Opponents of scanners argue that they create a hostile and criminalized atmosphere for city kids and detract from an educational atmosphere. Backers assert that they are a necessary measure given the frequency of weapons possession in city schools.
“This is the reason we have scanners in our schools,” said Greg Floyd, head of the schoolsafety-agents union.