School-safety uproar FED UP:
Sl kids walk out over failure to curb violence
undreds of students staged a walkat t a Staten Island high school onday morning to protest recent vience shortly after the campus was ced to go into lockdown over a oting threat, The Post has arned.
Susan E. Wagner HS went into ckdown at 10:50 a.m. following a reat made on Snapchat that speically targeted the planned walkt, officials said. he shelter-in-place was lifted at 29 a.m. and the students burst out of e building’s doors about 30 minutes later, according to Department of Eduspokesman cation Nathaniel Styer. Earlier reports from law-enforcement sources and students had the teens walking out during the lockdown. “The bell rang and people just walked out of class and met up in the lobby then everybody just started pushing through security,” said a sophomore student, whose name was withheld by The Post.
“They wouldn’t let us through, so we were like, ‘Just go, just go.’ ”
Students then flooded the school’s athletic field and the streets surrounding the facility, holding up signs that said, “Do Better” and, “Prioritize Student Safety” to protest a series of security issues that have plagued the campus.
“I don’t feel safe in this school. There’s been a stabbing. A fight broke out outside a gym a couple of months ago. Two times, there’s been guns. Every week, there’s a new threat,” the sophomore said.
Another kid said, “Last Thursday and Friday I didn’t even go to school because there were threats that the school was going to get shot up. I was honestly scared to come to school. I shouldn’t be scared to come to school.”
Last week, video emerged of a student betting pistol-whipped and another being stomped on just outside of the school’s gates. In October, a massive brawl erupted in a hallway, leaving a dean bloodied and school-safety agents tumbling to the floor.
Compounding the issue is a lack of Wi-Fi on campus, leading some students to chant, “We want Wi-Fi!” while marching around the school’s perimeter.
“Let’s say a school shooter comes in. We can’t call our parents because we have no service at all. No bars, no Wi-Fi. It says, ‘No service’ on top of your phone, unless you go to the cafeteria, where there’s Wi-Fi. Even outside in the field, we don’t get service,” a freshman told The Post.
It’s unclear why Wi-Fi isn’t available at the school.
Asked for comment, a Department of Education spokesperson didn’t address the connectivity concerns, but said the shooting threat was later deemed not credible by the NYPD.