By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — A student at Murry Bergtraum High School struck an NYPD School Safety officer in the head with a garbage can on Monday, police said.
The 17-year-old male student was arrested and charged with second-degree assault after attacking the 23-year-old male officer, police said. The officer was taken to New York Downtown Hospital in stable condition, police said.
The fight occurred as police were trying to regain control over the troubled lower Manhattan school, where hundreds of students rioted last Thursday after Principal Andrea Lewis revoked their bathroom privileges.
In a separate fight on Monday, an 18-year-old male student punched a 17-year-old male student in the face, police said. The 17-year-old was taken to Bellevue Hospital with cuts on his face, and the 18-year-old was arrested and charged with assault, police said.
In response to the swelling violence last week, the NYPD brought in a temporary metal detector Monday morning. Dozens of students skipped school rather than surrender their electronics, which are not allowed in school.
But police still found four razor blades and one knife and issued summonses to the five students who were carrying them, police said.
A source familiar with the school said police also rounded up about 500 cell phones.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, who visited the school on Friday, issued a statement Monday in response to the continued violence.
"In addition to increased security, the DOE needs to take immediate steps to restore an educational climate at Murry Bergtraum," Mulgrew said. "Programs like peer mediation and conflict resolution, which have all but disappeared across city schools, can go a long way toward preventing situations like those that have occurred recently at Murry Bergtraum."
Marge Feinberg, a Department of Education spokeswoman, said the school has ramped up security and implemented unannounced scans to curb the outbursts.
"School Safety is working very closely with the principal," she said.
