School officials are being closed mouth over a razor attack inside Lehman High School that left a student slashed on his face and parents kept in the dark.
Now the head of the parents association is questioning not only school security, but lack of communication.
Both the school principal and the city Department of Education had no response as to how a student could have smuggled a razor through metal detectors set up at the 2900-student school on E. Tremont Avenue off Westchester Square.
A 15-year-old student was arrested in the attack on a 16-year-old student on Monday, March 17 and a razor recovered on the floor. The attacker also suffered a cut on his hand, police said.
“This is a police matter,” a DOE spokeswoman said in response to questions about security policies.
Principal mum
School Principal Rose LoBianco, who has been trying to turn the once failing school around, did not respond to several requests for comment.
But Parent’s Association President Elvin Flores was upset that the school did not alert the association or parents about the attack. He only heard about the incident when first contacted by the Bronx Times Reporter on Thursday, March 20.
“How come no one told me?” he asked.
He said the school should have notified everyone so that the parents could speak with their kids and the association could field parent concerns.
He said he was very concerned by the news of the security breach.
“How something like that could happen, I have no idea,” he said.
Flores said that the school has a lot of security and that when he goes through the metal detectors the process is very thorough.
“How does a piece of metal this sharp get in to the school?”
A police source raised the possibility that the student could have eluded the metal detectors by stashing the razor in a hiding spot outside the school, “then going to a door with no alarm and retrieving it from outside.”
Flores said he will meet with principal to find out what happens next, and to help develop a plan of action to make sure this never happens again. The incident will also be discussed at the next Parent Association meeting.
“sad distraction”
He also called the incident a “sad distraction” from the good work students, faculty and parents are doing.
Nevertheless, the situation makes him very uncomfortable and worried for the safety of the students. Flores said he tells his son to never let his guard down and to constantly pay attention to what’s going on around him.
“I can’t wait for my son to graduate,” Flores said.
Council member Jimmy Vacca was also upset by the news, and said he would also like a further explanation of how security failed.
“I was surprised to hear that this could happen with metal detectors in place.”
Vacca said he was very concerned by the violent incident at a school in his district.
“It’s our job to protect students who are there to learn,” he said.
Police normally have both unarmed NYPD School Safety Division officers and a uniformed 45th Precinct detail stationed at the school mornings and afternoon dismissal times.
The precinct itself has a school detail of six officers and a sergeant responsible for covering Lehman and Truman High School at Co-op City as part of a total number of 30 school buildings in the precinct’s coverage area.
