Brooklyn high schools taken over briefly by gun, knife last week

Posted by Philissa at 7:44 AM

Last week was a scary one for two Brooklyn high schools.

On Thursday, John Dewey High School was locked down for three hours after a student dropped his gun in class, then picked it up and fled. Dewey doesn't have permanent metal detectors, although the roving detectors recently made an appearance. An insightful student wrote on the Times' City Room blog, "First they manage to take all of our phones away but when someone brings a gun to school they cant find it." Check out the comments there: students are mixed on whether they would like to see metal detectors installed, but there doesn't appear to be any division on the subject of whether Dewey has grown less safe and why. The reason for the decline, commenters say, is an influx of students from Lafayette High School, which is phasing out due to poor performance.

Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn does have metal detectors, but that didn't stop a student from being stabbed during a fight there on Friday; this weekend, he was in critical condition and his attacker had not been arrested. Officials say the attacker may have used scissors as a weapon, but students say the school has so many doors it's possible to sneak illicit items inside.