A new Queens principal found a safe stuffed with a stashed cache of knives in his office this week — after prior administrators apparently tucked the weapons away without reporting them.
Michael Borelli, who became head of IS 125 in Long Island City just this year, opened up a safe in the office of his predecessor, Judy Mittler, to insert some petty cash, sources said.
He noticed two shelves — and was shocked to see them filled with a dizzying variety of knives and what appeared to be a gun.
Weapons found in schools are supposed to be immediately reported to school safety agents who eventually hand over the items to the NYPD.
Those items are later included in NYPD weapons seizure tallies that are later made public.
Borelli followed that procedure this week after the startling discovery and school agents alerted their superiors to the arsenal.
“These items should have been reported to school safety — a standard procedure our school leaders are trained to follow,” said Department of Education spokesperson Nathaniel Styer. “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.”
Some of the weapons appeared to be decades old while others looked far newer, according to sources.
School safety agent union chief Greg Floyd said the find confirms his longstanding charge that administrators don’t report weapons to avoid scrutiny and soften statistics.
“This is an example of what I’ve been saying for years,” Floyd said. “How many other schools have safes that are full of weapons?”
He also argued that the incident illustrates the need to keep school safety under the purview of the NYPD as opposed to the DOE.
School sources said that IS 125 has been plagued by gang problems 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.”