NYC school safety union president calls for random weapons screening at all city public schools
NEW YORK -- The head of the school safety union in New York City is calling for random weapons screenings at every public school in the city, even elementary schools.
CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer says the call comes as a special weapons detection team spent a second day at a Queens school where three students were hurt in a shooting near campus.
Another cache of weapons were confiscated Friday at Francis Lewis High School. Although no guns were found, officials confiscated 12 weapons, including pepper spray, a folding knife and several other knives students brought to school.
READ MORE: Over a dozen weapons found at Francis Lewis High School 1 day after 3 teens shot nearby
School safety agents unloaded portable metal detectors at the school again Friday after 20 weapons were found Thursday and four suspects remain on the loose.
The shooting and the weapons being brought to school prompted Gregory Floyd, the head of the school safety union, to demand more metal detectors for city schools
"I think more metal detectors would help," he said.
Only 89 of the city's approximately 1,700 schools have permanent metal detectors, Floyd says.
"If you hire enough school safety agents that you have random scanning unannounced... If we have ten a day at ten different schools, that would help. And if you find weapons at that school, you go back, you go back, you go back," he said.
He says random scanning should be done at every single school, even elementary schools.
"Yes, I'll tell you why. You also have adults coming in. You also have children who unfortunately get firearms from their parents," Floyd said.
Meanwhile, Francis Lewis English teacher Christine O'Connell defended the use of metal detectors after the shooting of the three students, including a 14-year-old girl who was shot in the neck and has a bullet lodged in her spine.
READ MORE: NYPD: 3 teens wounded in drive-by shooting in Fresh Meadows, Queens
"It's kind of a natural reaction, right, because something very scary happened in the neighborhood and, you know, we want to protect our students and our staff," she said.
She added that some students may have brought weapons for their own protection, not to harm others.
"I did have a few students that came in yesterday and said, oh, my parents gave me this pepper spray in response to what happened, they want to make sure I feel safe all the time," O'Connell said.
Parent Phil Wong says it's time for the politicians to wise up about school safety.
"Absolutely ridiculous. We still have elected officials who say we gotta defund the police, who are gonna oppose school safety agents out of the school," he said. "And that's insane because they are the ones who keep kids safe."
Late Friday, Mayor Eric Adams issued a statement saying, again, that keeping students safe is his top priority, and while he didn't commit to increasing random scanning at all schools in the city, he said that random, unannounced scanning takes place every day.
