NEW YORK — A student at a Manhattan public school was found with a backpack stuffed with weapons, sources told the Daily News on Friday.
The 14-year-old student at Intermediate School 70 in Chelsea showed off a knife to another pupil, who reported it to the principal about 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, sources said.
School safety agents and administrators observed that the teen was acting strangely, and searched his backpack.
Inside, they found four knives, a set of brass knuckles, an expandable baton, fireworks and a laser pointer.
The boy was not arrested and hit with weapons possession charges as he was not threatening students or faculty with any of the weapons, sources said.
Instead, he was suspended from the school, which does not scan its students upon entry.
The NYPD was not called to the school in response to the incident, a police spokesperson said.
Last month, a random metal detector check at a Brooklyn high school turned up 21 weapons. Among the items recovered were nine knives, seven pepper spray canisters, four stun guns and one set of brass knuckles.
The Adams Street campus in downtown Brooklyn did not have permanent metal detectors installed.
Last year, city schools saw a frightening uptick in weapon removals from city schools. Between July 1 and Oct. 24, police seized 787 weapons, an increase of 28% from 2018 and 2019.
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