Recent school violence is calling attention to what some say is the need for more school safety agents.

Two knife attacks on students happened in two days in the city, a stabbing and a slashing. The latest assault on Wednesday was at the James M. Kieran School in the Bronx.

“It's unfortunate. What I make of it is, usually in December, there's a lot of violent incidents in the schools right around the holiday season. Why, I don't know,” said Teamster Union Local 237 president Gregory Floyd, whose union represents school safety agents.

The union president said incidents like the attack Tuesday on a 15-year-old student at Edward R Murrow High School in Brooklyn and Wednesday's slashing of a 12-year-old student in the Bronx have become more common as the number of school safety agents has decreased.

“We are down 2,000 positions in school safety, 2,000," Floyd said. "And this trend has been happening since the pandemic."

The union said an additional 120 school safety agents will be put in schools after a class of 250 prospects was canceled due to budget concerns.

Mayor Eric Adams addressed school safety at his press press conference on Tuesday. He said officials are looking into which schools need scanners to detect things like weapons.

"The police department and the Department of Education and school safety leaders, they're going to continue to do an analysis to determine which schools we should have those scanners, and we're continuously looking at ways of having non-intrusive scanners, because you know, we have a balance of protecting our children without damaging that they're feeling as though we're turning into some form of jail type atmosphere," Adams said. 

Sources said both schools where the knife attacks happened do not have scanners.

"I'm a believer of scanning to keep schools safe. But as you know, there is a balance, because there are a large number of parents who push back on scanners," Adams said.

Floyd said the placement of these devices should be dictated by the safety needs of the school.

"You can't govern by what people want. You do an assessment find out what schools are known to have kids carry weapons in. You put up the scanners," Floyd said.

It’s unclear when training would begin for the 120 school safety agents. It takes about 17 weeks for training to be completed.