PUBLIC SCHOOL .38
Second student in three days brings loaded gun to class
A GUN-TOTING Queens teen menaced a classmate Thursday with a weapon smuggled into their school — the second report of an armed public school student in just three days, police said.
The York Early College Academy went on a “soft lockdown” before giving the student body an early dismissal after the startling 9 a.m. incident in a school stairwell, parents and sources said.
The 15-year-old suspect sneaked the loaded .38-caliber handgun into the building inside his bookbag and was spotted flashing the gun during an argument with a group of students, police sources said.
“It’s scary, especially after it just happened down the street,” said freshman Naiah Toby, referring to a Tuesday gun incident at nearby Public School 40. “I never thought it would happen at this school.”
School staff found the gun and ushered him to the assistant principal’s office, where cops arrested him. He’s charged with criminal weapon possession and menacing, though it’s not clear if he’ll be treated as an adult or juvenile offender.
An 11-year-old student brought a .380 Hi-Point semiautomatic weapon to PS 40 after filching the gun from beneath his grandfather’s bed, authorities said. There was a single bullet in its magazine.
Only two guns were seized in city schools during all of 2015, the NYPD said.
On Thursday, a student told school administrators about seeing the armed confrontation. Officials at the Jamaica school stopped the suspect, recovered the weapon and called the NYPD.
Erica Ford, founder of the Life Camp anti-violence program, defended the teen suspect as someone who made a mistake.
“He’s a wonderful young man,” she said.
“The character of this young man is not a young thug who carries a gun and wants to hurt people.”
Student Sydney Lane, 12, said her math teacher was instructed to lock the classroom door early in the school day — but nobody shared any details as to why.
“We all kind of sensed something was going on because one of our superintendents was there,” she said. This week’s pair of armed students comes against the backdrop of a proposed plan by Mayor de Blasio’s to cut back on metal detectors and scanners in city schools.
“Another day, another weapon and another school safety agent at risk,” said Hank Sheinkopf, spokesman for the safety agents union.
“Remove the scanners and we’ll have a crime wave in school.”
Neither of the Queens schools is equipped with weapons scanners, according to sources.
“This is deeply alarming and we are working closely with NYPD to ensure that all students and staff are safe,” said city Education Department spokeswoman Toya Holness.