Staten pols slam school patrol cuts to pay for shelters
Staten Island elected officials blasted the Adams administration’s decision to cancel a new class of 250 school safety agents, complaining that the massive spending on the migrant crisis is now undermining services to the city’s citizenry.
The group of Republican officials urged City Hall and the NYPD to reinstate the trained class of school safety agents to address youth violence and concerns about terrorism while the Hamas-Israel war rages in the Middle East.
The safety agents were to be deployed citywide, not just in Staten Island.
“There’s nothing more important than the safety of our children,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said Monday at a news conference outside IS 2. “This is part of a dangerous trend that the mayor has been setting for this city.
“We are seeing a reduction in the NYPD overall. We’re seeing less cops on the street. Less detectives being able to solve crimes to put people behind bars. And now we’re seeing 25% less safety agents than there were pre-COVID pandemic.”
She noted that serious felony crimes in public schools jumped 16% and many of the violent incidents take place around the dismissal area outside of schools, which is patrolled by safety agents.
Malliotakis said it defied common sense for the mayor to have cut services and imposed a hiring freeze while abiding by the right to shelter policy for new arrivals “that is costing the city billions of dollars.”
Borough President Vito Fossella said it was a case of “I told you so,” noting he and other island officials had said months ago that the cost to shelter and care for tens of thousands of migrants was unsustainable.
“About a year ago, as the migrant shelter migrant crisis began to unfold and we said then it would be . . . unsustainable, and that sooner or later, hardworking people of this community would suffer. And they are [suffering],” Fossella said.
“If you want to spend $12 billion and continue to spend $12 billion on the migrant crisis, so be it — but don’t take it from the hardworking people in Staten Island.”
Assemblyman Michael Tannousis said it’s the “worst possible time” to cut back on school safety agents, saying the Israel-Hamas war makes New York City “a potential target for terrorists.”
“We need as many school safety agents in our schools as possible so they can adequately protect our children,” he said.
There are currently about 3,900 school safety agents working in city schools, 1,200 fewer than there were before the pandemic.
The head of the union representing school safety agents also said the new class of recruits should be reinstated.
“We have a shortage of school safety agents,” said Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237. “This is about protecting the students, the teachers and the school safety agents.”
‘It’s not right’
City Hall on Monday referred requests for comment to the NYPD, which said, “We are fully confident that our current agents will continue to provide security and ensure the safety of students, faculty and visitors in New York City public school buildings.”
Adams late last month addressed the cancellation of the school safety agent class as unfortunate, but warned that more cuts in services are coming in part because of the costs associated with the migrant crisis.
“Right now, the federal government is saying that people can come from anywhere on the globe, stay as long as they want on the taxpayers’ dime,” Adams said in an Oct. 29 interview on the 107.5 WBLS-FM “Caribbean Fever” radio program. “That’s just not right. It’s not right to New York City taxpayers, and it’s not right to the migrant and asylum-seekers.”
He said the problem is that many of the asylum-seekers don’t have authorization to work to support themselves, and only the federal government can provide the legal papers to do so.
“If we don’t change that, then we’re going to have a major problem in our city, and I need to, I am going to be honest with New Yorkers on what we’re faced with,” he said.