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NEW YORK, NY June 14, 2007 —The city's Education Department says more than 250 weapons and dangerous instruments have been confiscated in the past year through random scanning. WNYC's Beth Fertig has the details.

REPORTER: The items include box cutters, blades and knives, as well as pepper spray, scissors and tools. They were seized between the spring of last year and the end of April. But these items represent less than 1% of everything confiscated when security teams with metal detectors made unannounced visits to schools.

More than 19,000 cell phones were also taken - as well as 6700 iPods and other electronics. The New York Civil Liberties Union says these numbers show how the roving metal detector program that started last year isn't worth making students stand in line, missing classes. But Chancellor Joel Klein disagrees.

KLEIN: Let's be candid with each other - if that's the result, to get 250 weapons, that's important.

REPORTER: In addition, the NYPD says it seized 23 guns this academic year - but not at the roving scanners. For WNYC, I'm Beth Fertig.