By The newspaper
Mar 28, 2024, 1:31 PM EDT
Five students were injured and then arrested yesterday after a large fight broke out in the cafeteria of a charter school in Queens (NYC), a day after two students were shot in Newark, New Jersey’s most populous city.
The shooting was reported near West Side High School on South Orange Avenue around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday. At least one of the wounded is a student there, although the shooting did not occur on school grounds, he noted. ABCNews.
A 17-year-old teenager was in critical but stable condition, and a fifteen-year-old boy was also shot. Both were taken to University Hospital. A third victim suffered injuries unrelated to the gunshots as she fled the scene.
Governor Phil Murphy commented on the event a few hours later: “We are coordinating closely with local authorities and have offered our support to Mayor Ras Baraka and the city of Newark. “Every student deserves to be safe at school.”
In the New York case, police responded to a 911 call around 12:43 p.m. Wednesday at New Dawn Charter High School II in the Jamaica neighborhood, reported DailyNews.
I’ve been briefed on the shooting of two teenagers outside West Side High School today in Newark.
We’re coordinating closely with local law enforcement and have offered our support to Mayor @rasjbaraka and the @CityofNewarkNJ. Every student deserves to be safe at school.
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) March 26, 2024
The students, aged between 16 and 19, suffered cuts to various parts of their bodies, including their fingers, shoulders and faces. A 59-year-old security guard was cut on his right arm, police said.
The reason for the brawl is unclear. The institution did not comment on the incident. “New Dawn” charter schools provide students ages 15 to 21 and with fewer credits, including those who are English learners and have disabilities, the opportunity to return to school and earn a high school diploma, according to the mission statement posted on your page.
School violence is constant in New York, with guns, knives and physical fights. According to data from the NYPD and the Chalkbeat organization, more than 1,600 knives were found in New York City schools in the 2018-19 school year. But last year that number jumped to more than 2,800.
Earlier this month, an 8-year-old boy brought a gun to his school in Brooklyn (NYC) two days in a row before it was reported to authorities. In February, two 17-year-old students were stabbed at a high school in Queens (NYC), leading to the temporary closure of the school.
In December there were three students stabbed in 24 hours in early morning fights inside their schools, including a female victim. In October, a 13-year-old boy was stabbed to death by a 14-year-old boy while leaving school aboard an MTA public bus in Staten Island.
Similar situations have also occurred in other areas of New York state. In December, a 13-year-old boy was stabbed multiple times by another student of the same age at a middle school in Middletown, Orange County, at the beginning of the day.
In December it was reported that only 79 of 1,500 NYC school buildings had permanent metal detectors. There were also seven roving scanners on wheels, according to the last count known to the school safety officers union. In 2018 there were 93 school scanners. At the same time, the roster of school safety officers plummeted from about 5,200 in 2020 to about 3,700 by the end of 2023.