Stash Of Weapons Found In Safe At Sunnyside Middle School: Report

SUNNYSIDE, QUEENS — A middle school principal in Queens found a stash of weapons in an office safe this week, according to a new report.

Michael Borelli, who became head of IS 125 in Sunnyside this year, opened up an office safe in order to put away some petty cash, and was shocked to see an array of weapons stashed in the safe, including knives and what looked like a gun, the New York Post reported.

Sources told The Post that the safe was in the office of Borelli's predecessor, Judy Mittler.

Weapons that are found in schools are supposed to be reported to school safety agents, who eventually give the items to the NYPD, but some of the weapons in the safe looked like they were decades old, sources told The Post.

School safety agent union chief Greg Floyd told the tabloid that he's long believed that administrators don't report weapons in order to avoid scrutiny, since weapons seizure tallies are made public.

“This is an example of what I’ve been saying for years,” Floyd told The Post. “How many other schools have safes that are full of weapons?”

The incident also confirms Floyd's belief that the NYPD should manage school safety, not the Department of Education — an issue that's become increasingly contentious in NYC.

News of the weapons stash comes during an academic year that some have called out as particularly violent: last months videos of fighting at Bayside's Cardozo High School went viral, and NBC news reported that guns and weapons were found at schools in Queens, Staten Island, and Manhattan.

School sources at IS 125, however, told The Post that there have been gang problems at the middle school for many years.

“Parents need to know what’s going on,” said one mom. “It’s a little scary to think that they would hide weapons like that. I’m glad the new guy did what he did," she said, crediting Borelli for handing the weapons over to school safety agents and the NYPD.

When asked about the incident, a Department of Education spokesperson also credited Borelli for following the city's weapons procedures.

“These items should have been reported to school safety — a standard procedure our school leaders are trained to follow,” the spokesperson told The Post. “The new school leader at this school discovered these items, thoroughly followed proper procedures and immediately turned them over to school safety and this is being thoroughly investigated.”

Read the full NY Post article here.