High-school students from The Bronx and Brooklyn yesterday protested the city’s use of cops to keep order at unruly public schools, charging that the policy does more harm than good. More than 80 teens demonstrated outside City Hall, some demanding the practice be re-evaluated and others calling for an outright ban.
“They’re there to protect us, but that’s not what they do,” said Peter Luciano, 17, a senior at Bushwick HS. “They walk around holding their guns and their pepper spray and they’re scaring kids.”
The protest follows two incidents in which administrators and teachers were busted after clashing with cops trying to arrest students. Crime plummeted in “impact schools” after they were flooded with cops, but some students complained the police presence makes them feel like criminals.