Bronx school stabbing leaves parents on edge about weapons

MOUNT EDEN, Bronx (WABC) -- A stabbing outside IS 399 in the Bronx Monday was just the latest incident of violence in and around schools that has many parents on edge.

Police say an 18-year-old male was stabbed by a 16-year-old student during a fight over a cell phone outside the school in the Mount Eden section just after noon.

The victim, described as a student at Roosevelt High School who has recently been absent, was stabbed in the neck and was taken St. Barnabas Hospital with a non life-threatening injury.

The 16-year-old suspect was taken into custody at the scene, and sources say he knew there were metal detectors and broke the knife so that the blade stayed outside the building.

Officials at the Department of Education confirmed it was part of a steak knife, with school safety officers saying the blade ended up lodged in the victim's neck.

"Our school safety agent actually saved that child's life," said Gregory Floyd, with Teamsters Local 237.

Officials at DOE call it a non-school related crime, and at a community policing event with Schools Chancellor Carmin Farina Tuesday, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton actually touted crime stats.

"Our facts and statistics show that so far this year, school crime is down 13 percent," he said.

But police statistics also show more weapons -- including a dagger and two meat cleavers -- being recovered, with 1,751 seized since last July. And that's a 26 percent increase.

"Weapons seizures are up, not a bad thing," Bratton said. "We celebrate that we are seizing many more firearms off the streets of New York City."

Also on the rise, statistics show a 159% increase in Taser seizures this past year. Since July of last year, 96 Tasers have been taken from students.

But parents and school safety advocates say it's not enough to call that good news.

"That does not make me or my children feel safe at all," Safe Schools Now's Joe Herrera said. "And I would ask, what's the amount of weapons not being found."

It all comes as others ask whether everything that should be classified as a school crime really is?

"So when you start eliminating categories of crime, crime goes down, on paper," Floyd said. "So we don't really have a true picture of what is really happening."