Boy, 16, Accused Of Threatening Girl With Dagger At Queens High School
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A 16-year-old boy was accused this week of holding a dagger to a girl's throat at a Queens high school, and threatening to slash her.
The boy allegedly threatened the 17-year-old girl with the weapon on Wednesday at Newtown High School, at 48-01 90th St. in Elmhurst, Queens, according to Teamsters Local 237, which represents school safety officers.
The girl reported the incident to school officials, and police were called, the union said.
The boy was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, harassment, and menacing, the union said.
Police have reported five incidents of students bringing weapons to New York City schools since mid-March.
Just this past Monday, a 13-year-old boy allegedly threatened a 12-year-old girl with a loaded .22-caliber revolver at P.S. M169 Robert F. Kennedy, at 110 E. 88th St. on the Upper East Side.
The 13-year-old, from the Bronx, was later charged with criminal possession of a weapon and menacing, while a 15-year-old, from Manhattan, was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, police said. Police said the 15-year-old boy had taken the handgun at the time of the arrests.
Sources told 1010 WINS the student told an administrator that he was armed because he had been involved in some sort of confrontation earlier with unspecified people – but not students – outside of school grounds.
The student allegedly got the gun from a friend, police said.
The student was charged as a juvenile with criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds.
The week before that, students at two schools in Jamaica, Queens, were allegedly caught with guns.
On March 17 at York Early College Academy, or YECA a 15-year-old high school student was caught with a .38-caliber gun on campus in Queens.
Police said he was also charged as a juvenile.
Sources said the teen got in a quarrel with a group of students inside the school then opened up his backpack and flashed the weapon.
One of the classmates who saw the gun alerted a school security guard. Students were kept in their classrooms until police arrived.
On March 15, police said an 11-year-old boy brought a loaded 9mm semiautomatic pistol to P.S. 40. His grandfather faces charges, including criminal possession of a weapon.
In another incident involving a weapon on March 29, a 14-year-old boy brought a knife to the Urban Assembly School for Careers in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, police said.
This week, the group Brooklyn by Families for Excellent Schools and 10 New York City public school students and their families filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education. The suit claims the DOE is failing to enforce its own regulations on bullying and harassment, and further that the existing regulations are inadequate.
In discussing the lawsuit Thursday, Jeremiah Kitteridge, chief executive officer for Families for Excellent Schools, said there has been a recent uptick in violence and weapons in schools.