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WNYC NEWSROOM January 12, 2007 —WNYC has learned that school security agents confiscated more than 17,000 items last year with roving metal detectors, but less than 1% of these were weapons. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

Roving teams of safety agents with metal detectors began showing up at high schools and middle schools last spring. Between April and mid December, the Department of Education says 115 weapons were confiscated - meaning knives, box cutters, and razors. Security agents also found 58 instruments considered dangerous - including pipes and scissors.

No guns were detected.

Of the remaining items, more than 12,600 were cell phones and 4500 were iPods and other electronics - all of which are banned. The head of the New York Civil Liberties Union says these numbers prove the city has created an unnecessary police state in the schools because so few weapons were found. But a department of education spokeswoman says even a few weapons could have done a lot of damage. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.