Gun Incidents At NYC Schools Prompt Unannounced Metal Detectors

NEW YORK CITY — A spate of troubling firearms seizures from New York City students will prompt increased unannounced scanning for weapons at the city's school, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

De Blasio said officials this week will further unveil details on a school safety blitz.

But he said broadly that students, parents and teachers can expect to see more NYPD coordination officers at school arrival and dismissal and "20 safe corridors" with greater police presence, in addition to random metal detectors.

“Unannounced scanning is a tool, it’s been very successful,” he said. “We’ll be doing that at some schools where it would be particularly helpful.”

School safety officers confiscated five firearms — two of which were loaded — last week, CBS2 reported.

De Blasio tied the incidents to a general uptick in guns across the city during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Unfortunately, we see too often a lot of youth carrying guns,” said Rodney Harrison, the NYPD's chief of department. “But the last thing we need to see is somebody entering a school site with a firearm.”

Protests last year after the murder of George Floyd prompted a push to shift school safety agents from the NYPD and into the Department of Education.

De Blasio dismissed concerns that there are too few school safety agents given that gun incidents, while alarming, still remain rare. He noted that 92 percent of them are vaccinated against the coronavirus.

"We do have more agents coming in, there is a new class coming," he said. "We've got to figure out over time what the exact right number is."