Is It Time We Armed Retired Police Officers Who Work Our Schools?

We have seen these tragedies unfold and we instantly think of our children. What if this happened at my school?

As the father of two young children nothing scares me more. We have hardened most government facilities such as our airports, courthouses and other government buildings with police officers or armed security but not our schools. Maybe it’s time we have that discussion. Many of our schools hire school resource officers/security guards that are retired police officers. My school district does! These retired police officers come with valuable training regarding active shooters. They have served in a profession where they were trained to deal with all sorts of stress including dealing with armed individuals. They have a calling to serve and we know many are willing to risk their life’s for our children. They are trained to engage the threat they are faced with head on. Time is your enemy when faced with such a threat. They are hired by our schools because of their background. They are trained for these situations but are not equipped to engage the threat. It makes no sense why we would not arm them.

We only need to look at our neighbors in New Jersey. Last year New Jersey passed legislation for armed "class III special officers" which allowed school districts to hire armed retired police officers as special police officers to serve in schools and universities. The legislation was sought after by the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police. The bill was first introduced after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn. four years ago. They are required to undergo training.

I believe this is a solution. It may not be the total solution true, but it is a solution, one that I believe will make our schools safer.

Some of us have already contacted our state officials to begin changing our laws to allow this. We have even started a petition from discussing this in a local Facebook group. We are pushing legislation for the following.

It states

New York State parents are passionate about their children's safety in schools.

We are supportive of having armed guards at all schools and universities.

We SUPPORT, ENCOURAGE and ASK for:

1) legislation to change the Safe Act to allow retired police officers employed by a school or university to be armed and to undergo specified, required yearly training.

2) raising or eliminating the 30k cap on income for retired police officers employed by a school or university.

3) retired police officers to be peace officers when employed by a school or university.

We have retired police officers trained in active shooter employed by our schools and universities that can take out a threat but are not armed to do so. They served as police officers in the past and are best equipped to protect our children.

Please act on this TODAY so that we may lower the risk and probability of mass shootings in our schools.

The link can be found here!

https://www.change.org/p/andrew-cuomo-allow-retired-police-officers-employed-by-a-school-university-to-be-armed-in-ny-state

I urge all of us to open up such dialogue with our school boards to support such legislation and to contact your state representatives.

Again this is not the whole solution nor do I want to make this a gun control debate. I’m just a concerned parent like everyone else.

This is also my opinion and not the opinion of any civic association board I may belong to. This is my opinion and view only !