#ABKLaw BLOG by Michael Jaccarino: Gun Crimes in NYC Schools on the Rise – How will students be charged?

A student threatened another boy with a gun at a public high school in the West Village last week, while someone shot out the windows of two classrooms at a Staten Island elementary school, cops said.

One of the targeted classrooms at PS 78 in Staten Island’s Clifton section had 10 adult students inside at the time, although no one was injured. The other classroom was unoccupied. 

Some of these students may be charged with weapons charges as if they were adults.

In the troubling incident in Manhattan, an 18-year-old pulled a black revolver on a 17-year-old fellow student inside High School M560, on Clarkson Street,  before running off around noon, cops said.

No one was injured, and it was unclear whether the gun was loaded. Cops have identified the 18-year-old and are trying to locate him. Police sources said the teen often doesn’t attend school.  About a half-hour later, at 12:30 p.m., someone shot out the first-floor windows in the two classrooms at the Staten Island school on Hill Street. That suspect fled in a car.

Both incidents involve just the latest violence in and around city schools. In December of 2021, city officials placed a metal detector in Brooklyn’s Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice after a student was busted with a loaded gun, and recovered 21 weapons in one day!

A 37-year-old security guard was wounded in a shooting last week outside Williamsburg Charter High School in Brooklyn.  The private guard, who was hired by the school, was grazed in the neck by a bullet as he tried to break up a melee during afternoon dismissal Wednesday. 

Video footage taken at the scene showed kids wildly throwing punches in the street before at least four shots were fired.  It goes without saying that all of these students, if arrested and prosecuted, face serious criminal consequences.

Juvenile Collateral Consequences in the State of New York 

New York’s juvenile delinquency proceedings are all held in family court.  In contrast, if an individual is not a juvenile or youthful offender, the proceedings take place in adult court.  In the state of New York, there is limited access to both juvenile delinquency records and youthful offender records.  However, if a juvenile is charged as a juvenile offender and not found to be eligible for youthful offender status, the records will be public.  

During a juvenile’s adjudication, juveniles, their attorneys, and juveniles’ families may be unaware of who will have access to juvenile records both while the child is still a juvenile and afterwards.   New York has three different classifications for young individuals who commit offenses within the state: a juvenile delinquent, who is “a person over seven and less than sixteen years of age,” a youthful offender, who is defined as an individual who commits a crime and is at least sixteen years old and less than nineteen years old, and a juvenile offender, who is an individual under the age of sixteen found guilty of specific acts enumerated by statute.

The State’s family court has jurisdiction over juvenile delinquency proceedings, whereas a youthful offender is charged, tried, and convicted in New York’s criminal courts.  If the individual is being charged as a juvenile offender, the case may be heard in the supreme court, or transferred to the family court. Regardless, the juvenile offender is subject to more serious penalties than a juvenile delinquent.

It is important to not only have representation from a knowledgeable criminal defense attorney, but one who is familiar with the family court, and the removal proceedings from criminal court to family court.  Contact the criminal defense attorneys at Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins today of you have questions.

At Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, our criminal defense lawyers have a wealth of experience in both Federal and State Court, and have defended some of the most high profile cases in the country.  Contact us today if you or someone you know is facing criminal charges of any kind.

Michael Jaccarino, and the criminal defense attorneys at Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, PC, have decades of experience. 

For more information or more fact-specific discussions, call our office and ask to speak with attorney Michael Jaccarino.