By Jennifer Medina, The New York Times
In the wake of violent incidents at several New York City high schools, about 50 more security guards were assigned to seven high schools yesterday, city officials said.
Nearly half of the approximately 130 guards who completed a New York Police Department training program this week are being placed at William H. Taft, John F. Kennedy and Evander Childs in the Bronx; Lafayette in Brooklyn; and Thomas A. Edison, Hillcrest and Jamaica, three high schools in Queens that will share some guards, Deputy Mayor Dennis M. Walcott said.
With the additional officers, some schools may have as many as 30 uniformed guards patrolling the halls. The concentration of guards in these schools is part of an initiative to step up security in all city schools, Mr. Walcott said.
Each of the seven schools has had episodes of violence in recent months, with reports of students attacking teachers at Taft, Kennedy and Evander Childs. At Kennedy, where a student was stabbed to death outside the school in August, dozens of students began shoving one another and running through the school after a fire drill last week, a teacher said. Police officers used Mace to control students, the teacher said.
Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said the move to add guards was a step in the right direction. Earlier this year, she called for a security summit with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein.
Mayor Bloomberg announced the creation of the Office of School Safety and Planning in September and said the Department of Education would begin following the Police Department model of using crime statistics to identify schools where guards are most needed.