NYC school brings in metal detectors after stabbing. Hear what students have to say.
NEW YORK -- Metal detectors were in place Wednesday morning at the High School of Graphic Communication Arts in Manhattan, a day after two students were injured during a fight.
Police said one student was slashed in the face and the other was stabbed in the chest. They were both hospitalized but are expected to be OK.
The school, which went into a soft lockdown, limiting movement within the property, after the fight, ramped up security Wednesday, and students lined up to go through metal detectors before class.
"You see all these police cars over here. They have a million metal detectors," one student told CBS New York. "I don't think anyone would try anything now."
"Now, it feels safer. It looks like there's more police officers than actual students," another student said.
"They should've been had a long time ago," another added.
What we know about Tuesday's altercation
Police said a 15-year-old and 17-year-old got into a fight at around 1:15 p.m. Tuesday inside the school at 49th Street and 10th Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. Both students were charged with assault. The NYPD said no other students were involved, and it is still working to determine the motive.
The stabbing happened right before a ceremony for the Reserve Officers Training Corps and sent the school into lockdown. Parents waited outside for hours, and many had to miss the event.
"They told us to go back in the classroom, because two kids had a knife," one student said.
"I was just in shock, because it was just meant to be a good day for a ceremony, and then locked down over a stabbing," said another. "My parents were actually at the front gate, and they said they saw a small trail of blood going to the front door."
The city Department of Education says public schools are randomly scanned with metal detectors. NYPD stats from show unannounced screenings turned up 37 weapons at the High School of Graphic Communication Arts, in 2023 and 33 in 2022.
Some parents said they'd like the scanners to be more permanent.
"If they always have metal detectors here, I'm completely fine with it," parent Makeda Nelson said. "Back in my day [when] I was going to school, I had metal detectors."