With violence plaguing city schools, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell fielded questions from kids Saturday at a Harlem event meant for children to get to know cops.
But while the youngsters wanted to know how it felt to be in charge of the police force, some families said more needed to be done to keep kids safe.
“We need to have more security. More police around the schools,” Washington Heights grandmother Mayra Palacio, 58, told The Post. “In schools, the teachers and staff members need to be more preoccupied when the kids are leaving school. They need to have heightened security inside and outside of the schools.”
Palacio helps take care of her grandchildren, including a 9-year-old who goes to the KIPP Infinity Charter School in West Harlem.
Student shootings and stabbings have increased during the current academic year, with three teens killed near their schools.
Harlem resident Marsha Taylor, 53, whose children are at the Global Community Charter School Harlem, said there is always a level of concern about their safety.
“Kids leaving out of school, out of sporting events, there’s a shooting — it puts me on edge. My kids are small. You never know what can happen anytime anywhere,” she said.
Taylor insists her children, who are 8 and 10, take cellphones to class, even though it’s frowned upon by the school.
“In an emergency, I want to have a way to communicate with my children if they are on lockdown. If someone, unfortunately, gets into that school — and it happens right here in New York City — my children will of course be terrified. You just never know,” she said.
The event at the Police Athletic League in Harlem and sponsored by the Harlem Mothers S.A.V.E. anti-violence group.