UPPER EAST SIDE — A teen boy was arrested along with two others after he threatened a 12-year-old girl with a gun at a school on East 88th Street, according to the NYPD.
The 13-year-old boy showed a .22-caliber handgun and threatened the girl inside P.S. 169, the Robert F. Kennedy School, at 110 E. 88th St. on Monday afternoon, according to authorities.
A 14-year-old was also caught carrying a box of ammunition, and the gun was recovered from the pocket of a jacket belonging to a 15-year-old, police said.
School administration had already confiscated the gun and ammo and were holding the boys by the time police arrived at 1:45 p.m., officials said.
The teens — whose names were not released because they were being charged as juveniles — were each charged with criminal possession of a weapon, authorities said. The 13-year-old was hit with an additional menacing charge, according to authorities.
There have been at least four other incidents in the city this year in which students have been caught bringing guns to school.
On March 15, an 11-year-old brought a Hi-Point 380 semiautomatic pistol with a single bullet to P.S. 40 in Jamaica, police said.
The child's grandfather was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment, endangering the welfare of a child and unauthorized possession of a pistol, according to prosecutors.
Two days later, a 15-year-old boy was arrested for bringing a loaded .38-caliber revolver to York Early College Academy in Jamaica, authorities said. He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and menacing, police said.
On March 22, a 14-year-old boy brought a handgun and two clips of ammunition to his Prospect-Lefferts Gardens middle school, officials said. He told police he did it to protect himself from older kids.
In response to the recent incident, Department of Education spokesman Toya Holness reiterated the agency's zero-tolerance policy.
"This is profoundly disturbing and we are working in close partnership with NYPD to investigate this incident," Holness said. "There is zero tolerance for weapons of any kind and nothing is more important than the safety of all students and staff."
Crime at city schools dropped by 29 percent between the 2011-12 and 2014-15 school years, she added.
But education advocates say the city needs to take the gun issue more seriously.
"Another week, another loaded gun in school, and another boilerplate response from the Department of Education," said Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of Families for Excellent Schools.
"When can parents and students see a real response to New York City's crisis of school violence?"
