By Madeleine List
The Charlotte Observer
NEW YORK — An intruder who tried to assault a teacher at a Bronx elementary school slashed a school safety agent who intervened to stop the attack, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during an announcement about education in the city.
He called the agent’s actions “heroic” and said the intruder would be “brought to justice.”
The intruder, who police later identified as the teacher’s ex-boyfriend, slashed the agent behind the ear, according to NBC 4. Police have arrested a suspect.
The man attempted to assault the teacher as she was walking into school at P.S. 69, Journey Prep School, at around 7:40 a.m. on Thursday, April 14, according to ABC 7. Students had not yet arrived.
The man “pulled out a sharp object and slashed the teacher” on her arm, according to ABC 7. Both the teacher and the agent were taken to a local hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
“Violence in our school will not be accepted,” Adams said during his announcement.
https://twitter.com/NYPD43Pct/status/1514754442175909889
Security at public schools in New York is provided by school safety agents who are members of the New York City Police Department, according to the New York City Department of Education. The department’s school safety division includes more than 5,000 employees, according to the NYPD School Safety Twitter account.
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The account tweeted a picture of a group of school safety officers on the afternoon of April 14.
“These are just a few of the faces that represent the School Safety Division,” the tweet says. “Every day, School Safety Agents are posted on the front lines to protect our children. An assault on one of them is an assault on all of us. It won’t be tolerated.”
https://twitter.com/NYPDSchools/status/1514689801181614085
During his announcement, Adams also commended the city’s school safety agents for their actions during an attack at a Brooklyn subway station that injured dozens on April 12.
“Our schools were safe. Our children were safe,” he said of the schools in Sunset Park, the Brooklyn neighborhood where the attack occurred. “Five schools in the Sunset Park area that were locked down… We will provide mental health and trauma support for those who need it.”
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