Just days after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers inside an elementary school in Texas, officials at two separate New York City-area schools found students brought firearms to school.
In Brooklyn, a ghost gun was found outside the Street Academy School. The weapon was found around 11 a.m., when officials at the Bedford-Stuyvesant school were told by a female student that her 16-year-old boyfriend had put the firearm in a duffel bag outside the school, according to a law enforcement source.
A spokesperson for the city's Department of Education told NBC New York that school safety agents with the NYPD "immediately and safely recovered this item, which was found off campus, following a concern raised by a member of the school community."
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The union source said that the safety agent did a perimeter check, and when looking into bushes across the street from the school, found a black bag. Inside that bad was a nylon case, containing the gun. A law enforcement source said the gun was not loaded, but there were two magazines with bullets inside the bag.
"Yet another gun off our New York City streets," said Mark Rampersant, the head of safety and youth development for the city's Education Department.
Two male students were held for questioning regarding the found weapon, while NYPD detectives canvassed the area and were waiting to review security footage to see who may have placed the bag there, a law enforcement source told News 4.
It was the 21st gun found inside a NYC school this academic year.
"A small percentage of young people are doing the wrong thing. And we need to band together and rid our city of this unfortunate weaponry," Rampersant said. "Young people arming themselves to hurt each other."
It was not the only weapon found at an NYC-area school Thursday, as three students in Yonkers were found to have passed around a BB gun. The students, all seventh graders at the Cesar Chavez School that serves kindergarten through eighth grade, were seen with the weapon by classmates, who in turn told school staff.
"Immediately police responded and three young people seem to have been involved in passing the BB gun around," said Yonkers Superintendent Dr. Edwin Quezada.
The BB gun was not believed to be loaded. Yonkers police said they anticipate charging one or more of the students as juvenile delinquents. However, Quezada said that it's adults who also need to take action.
"Schools will not be safe places for children if we, the adults, do not get it together," he said, urging parents to be more mindful of what their kids are doing. "They need to be attentive to what kids are writing, saying, social media. Open the bags of your children, see what they may be carrying to school."
Police told NBC New York that "in light of recent events locally and nationally, parents may expect to see additional resources in and around our schools," but added that the situation was under control and that thee are no additional treats to students or the school.
Quezada said the school does not have metal detectors, and does not have plans to get any, calling it a sad development following the tragic events in Uvalde, Texas.
