WTF! 2 THIRD GRADERS & A FIFTH GRADER IN THE BRONX ARE CAUGHT WITH BOX CUTTERS IN SCHOOL!

Three Bronx elementary school students - ages 8, 9 and 11 - were arrested Wednesday for bringing a knife and a box cutter to class, authorities said.
The pint-sized delinquents - two third-graders and a fifth-grader - were escorted out of Public School 2 in Morrisania by their principal after a school aide saw the kids with the weapons, sources said.

"I'm scared to go back to school," said Izhanee Thomas, 10, a classmate of one of the children arrested. "He was a nice boy," he said. "I don't know why he did it. I just know it's scary."

The boys face criminal weapons possession charges, cops say. Witnesses told the Daily News the boys also had cans of spray paint.

The boys were questioned at the 42nd Precinct stationhouse. They were cuffed and escorted to the Spofford Juvenile Center last night.

One of the boys was identified by his grandfather, who saw the boy at the police station, as Raphael Beltron, 9.

"He's not a bad kid," Melvin Mann, 59, told The News. "He's polite and respectful. He'd been in a fight [Tuesday] and kids told him they were going to jump him. He was defending himself."

Mann was troubled by the care his young grandson was receiving while in custody and worried about where the boy would end up for the night.

"My grandson has been in custody for 12 hours and they did not feed him dinner," he said. "You don't treat children like this."

The school, located on Boston Road near E. 169th St., is just blocks from where 15-year-old Vada Vasquez was hit with a stray bullet last week as she walked home from nearby Bronx Latin.

The former PTA president of PS 2 said PS 2 recently moved to the building and combined with PS 63. Before the consolidation, things were better, she said.

"This happened because no one in the new administration cares, and the kids know it, so they act out," said Amanda Cruz, 35, who stepped down after two years as PTA president when her daughter graduated last year.

Cruz said all of the school's computers were stolen last week and crime is on the rise.

"This is just crazy," said Awilda Santiago, 28, a stay-at-home mother whose 10-year-old son, Jose, goes to the school. "I send him to school every day thinking my son is safe but, now, I just don't know. They're going to have to put a metal detector in an elementary school!"

"I'm just sad," said little Jose. "I don't feel like going back on Monday."