Apple Schools Go ‘Bust’
5 kids nabbed daily.
Readin’, writin’, robberies.
On the average school day last fall, five city students were arrested and nine hit with summonses, shocking new police data show.
Black and Hispanic students were most likely to leave school in handcuffs — accounting for 93 percent of the 279 arrests at city schools between Oct. 1 and the Christmas break.
More students were arrested in The Bronx than any other borough — with 78 middle- and high-schoolers busted by cops for crimes such as assault, larceny and robbery.
Brooklyn students logged 73 arrests, Manhattan had 55, Queens had 41 and Staten Island had 32.
On average, six of every 10,000 middle- and high-school students were busted last fall, the data show.
Another 19 out of every 10,000 high-school students were issued summonses last fall for minor offenses such as disorderly conduct, marijuana possession and violations of parking and motor-vehicle laws.
In all, cops and school-safety officers issued 532 summonses.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said that while arrests are up, the number of felonies has dropped from 1,577 in 2001 to 801 last year.
At a demonstration yesterday outside Police Headquarters in lower Manhattan, City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Queens) complained that the police presence in schools is too heavy handed.
“There are twice as many school-safety officers as guidance counselors,” said Dromm, a former teacher. “Are we preparing our students for jail or for college?”
But city schools need cops and school-safety officers to maintain a safe environment, said Councilman Peter Vallone Jr.
“When parents leave their kids in the custody of the Department of Education eight hours a day, their Number 1 concern is that their children are kept safe,” said Vallone (D-Queens).
The data contain a shocker for Staten Islanders — middle- and high-school students were arrested in public schools there at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the city.
Cops and school-safety officers made 32 arrests in Staten Island schools, or 11 busts per 10,000 students.