Bronx kindergartener came to school with gun in backpack
A 6-year-old kindergartener was found carrying a gun inside a high-achieving Bronx prep school Thursday morning, police sources said.
School officials found the firearm in the backpack of the student at Boys Prep Bronx Elementary School at 192 E. 151 St., the sources said.
Boys Prep Bronx is one of the city’s high-performing schools and is listed among the top 25% of public schools in the state, school data shows.
“Our staff acted quickly today to ensure everyone’s safety and communicate with our families and the proper authorities,” a spokesperson for the school said in an email to The Post on Thursday.
“We are obviously shocked and saddened by this situation and are now focused on reviewing our procedures while also ensuring this student and his classmates have the support they need,” the spokesperson said.
Officials did not release details about how the child got the gun or if it was loaded. But in a letter emailed to parents, Public Prep, which oversees the school, said a teacher found the weapon “within the first few minutes of school.”
One worried Boys Prep dad, whose son is a first-grader, said he dashed to the campus from work after his wife called him about the incident.
“It’s not enough information right now so to avoid all that, until they figure it out, I’m taking my kid home,” he said. “I just wanted to get him out. You never know. I don’t want my son around all that razz right now.”
“I always hear it on the news but it’s kind of crazy when it’s close to home,” he said. “It’s a good school. The teachers are nice. It’s just unfortunate that it’s happening right here.”
Tieyena Perez, the mother of a 9-year-old 4th-grader, was in tears when she showed up outside the school to bring her boy home.
“I started crying,” said Perez, 41. “I just came right away and picked him. Like, I didn’t even want him here a minute longer. I was just scared. I’m just shaking.
“It’s sad, you know? It’s scary. I don’t even want him in school anymore, to be honest. I want to like home-school him, she said. “I don’t know as a mom what should I do. Should I tell him or should I not? Because if I do tell him he might be too scared to come to school.”
Perez said she was also upset that school officials waited more than an hour to notify parents about the incident.
The troubling discovery came around the same time school officials found another firearm in the possession of a 14-year-old at a Brooklyn school, the sources said.
The teen was found with a gun at Brooklyn Collegiate Preparatory High School at 2021 Bergen St. Thursday morning, police sources said.
In that incident, police sources said the teenager was seen on surveillance footage displaying the gun earlier in the week.
The teens were later pulled aside and searched, and the 14-year-old was found with an unloaded 9 mm handgun in his bag, the sources said.
Similar instances of students showing up to class armed are shockingly common in the Big Apple, including a 7-year-old who was found with a loaded 9 mm handgun in his backpack in February.
The boy was at PS 5 in Queens for a day-school program when educators found the weapon, with cops later charging the youngster’s father, who had mistakenly put the weapon in his son’s bag.
Last month alone there were multiple other instances of students nabbed with guns inside other city schools.
On Oct. 24, a 16-year-old was arrested at a Long Island City high school with a loaded gun and a razor in his bag, just three days after a 17-year-old student at Medgar Evers CollegePreparatory High School in Crown Heights was found with a gun and marijuana.
On Oct. 19, a 16-year-old student at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx was also caught bringing a gun to the campus.
A 6-year-old kindergartener was found carrying a gun inside a high-achieving Bronx prep school Thursday morning, police sources said.
School officials found the firearm in the backpack of the student at Boys Prep Bronx Elementary School at 192 E. 151 St., the sources said.
Boys Prep Bronx is one of the city’s high-performing schools and is listed among the top 25% of public schools in the state, school data shows.
“Our staff acted quickly today to ensure everyone’s safety and communicate with our families and the proper authorities,” a spokesperson for the school said in an email to The Post on Thursday.
“We are obviously shocked and saddened by this situation and are now focused on reviewing our procedures while also ensuring this student and his classmates have the support they need,” the spokesperson said.
Officials did not release details about how the child got the gun or if it was loaded. But in a letter emailed to parents, Public Prep, which oversees the school, said a teacher found the weapon “within the first few minutes of school.”
One worried Boys Prep dad, whose son is a first-grader, said he dashed to the campus from work after his wife called him about the incident.
“It’s not enough information right now so to avoid all that, until they figure it out, I’m taking my kid home,” he said. “I just wanted to get him out. You never know. I don’t want my son around all that razz right now.”
“I always hear it on the news but it’s kind of crazy when it’s close to home,” he said. “It’s a good school. The teachers are nice. It’s just unfortunate that it’s happening right here.”
Tieyena Perez, the mother of a 9-year-old 4th-grader, was in tears when she showed up outside the school to bring her boy home.
“I started crying,” said Perez, 41. “I just came right away and picked him. Like, I didn’t even want him here a minute longer. I was just scared. I’m just shaking.
“It’s sad, you know? It’s scary. I don’t even want him in school anymore, to be honest. I want to like home-school him, she said. “I don’t know as a mom what should I do. Should I tell him or should I not? Because if I do tell him he might be too scared to come to school.”
Perez said she was also upset that school officials waited more than an hour to notify parents about the incident.
The troubling discovery came around the same time school officials found another firearm in the possession of a 14-year-old at a Brooklyn school, the sources said.
The teen was found with a gun at Brooklyn Collegiate Preparatory High School at 2021 Bergen St. Thursday morning, police sources said.
In that incident, police sources said the teenager was seen on surveillance footage displaying the gun earlier in the week.
The teens were later pulled aside and searched, and the 14-year-old was found with an unloaded 9 mm handgun in his bag, the sources said.
Similar instances of students showing up to class armed are shockingly common in the Big Apple, including a 7-year-old who was found with a loaded 9 mm handgun in his backpack in February.
The boy was at PS 5 in Queens for a day-school program when educators found the weapon, with cops later charging the youngster’s father, who had mistakenly put the weapon in his son’s bag.
Last month alone there were multiple other instances of students nabbed with guns inside other city schools.
On Oct. 24, a 16-year-old was arrested at a Long Island City high school with a loaded gun and a razor in his bag, just three days after a 17-year-old student at Medgar Evers CollegePreparatory High School in Crown Heights was found with a gun and marijuana.
On Oct. 19, a 16-year-old student at John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx was also caught bringing a gun to the campus.
