Hundreds of students staged a walkout from a Staten Island school Monday morning to protest recent violence shortly after the campus was forced to go into lockdown over a shooting threat, The Post has learned.
Susan E. Wagner High School went into lockdown at 10:50 a.m. following a threat made on Snapchat that specifically targeted the planned walkout, officials said.
Students staged a walkout at Wagner High School on Staten Island after several incidents of violence at the troubled school.
Students at Wagner High School staged a walkout on Monday to protest recent violence at the school.
The shelter-in-place was lifted at 11:29 a.m. and the students burst out of the building’s doors about 30 minutes later, according to Department of Education spokesman Nathaniel Styer. Earlier reports from law enforcement sources and students had the teens walking out during the lockdown.
“The bell rang and people just walked out of class and met up in the lobby then everybody just started pushing through security,” said a sophomore student, whose name is being withheld by The Post due to their age.
“They wouldn’t let us through so we were like, ‘Just go, just go.’”
Students then flooded the school’s athletic field and the streets surrounding the facility, holding up signs that said “Do Better” and “Prioritize Student Safety” to protest a series of security issues that have been plaguing the learning center.
A Wagner student speaks with a megaphone during the walkout.
The school was locked down on Monday over shooting threats.
“I don’t feel safe in this school. There’s been a stabbing. A fight broke out outside a gym a couple of months ago. Two times there’s been guns. Every week there’s a new threat,” the sophomore said.
“Last Thursday and Friday I didn’t even go to school because there were threats that the school was going to get shot up,” another added.
“I was honestly scared to come to school. I shouldn’t be scared to come to school.”
Last week, video emerged of a student getting pistol-whipped and another stomped on just outside of the school’s gates. In October, a massive brawl erupted inside the hallway, leaving a dean bloodied and school safety agents tumbling to the floor.
Compounding the issue is a lack of WiFi on campus, leading some students to chant “We want WiFi! We want WiFi!” while marching around the school’s perimeter.
The students at Wagner High School have had enough of recent violent incidents at the school.
“Let’s say a school shooter comes in. We can’t call our parents because we have no service at all. No bars, no wifi. It says ‘No service’ on top of your phone, unless you go to the cafeteria, where there’s wifi. Even outside in the field, we don’t get service,” a freshman explained to The Post.
It’s unclear why WiFi isn’t available at the school. When asked for comment, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Education didn’t address the connectivity concerns but said the shooting threat was later deemed not credible by the NYPD.
“Safety is our paramount priority, and violent incidents are down 18 percent in schools this year because of our work to make communities safe and supportive for all students,” Styer said in a statement.
“Student voice and engagement is so important, and Wagner High School’s leadership is comprehensively addressing concerns in partnership with the School Safety Division and NYPD,” he said.
Citywide, the number of school safety agents has shrunk by about 25 percent.
