Sandy Hook Elementary School …slate.com
Totowa stations police officers at elementary schools
Thursday January 3, 2013, 8:36 PM
BY MATTHEW MCGRATH
STAFF WRITER
The Record
TOTOWA — The borough’s two elementary schools became the first in Passaic and Bergen counties to post armed police officers in their buildings as a protective measure following the shooting deaths in a Connecticut elementary school last month.
To general praise from the public, borough and district officials said, borough police officers, working two shifts, began on Wednesday to stand guard: two at any given time in the Washington Park School, with 700 students, and one at the Memorial School, with 300 kids.
Jesse Castillo went to the school Thursday to bring his son, a 3rd-grader, his asthma medication. He had to sign-in with the officer for the first time.
“I felt it was safe for the kids,” Castillo said. “They should do this from now on.”
About 23% of the nation’s school districts have law enforcement officers in their buildings, according to Francisco Negron, general counsel of the National School Boards Association.
So when is Ridgewood, NJ going to do the right thing and place armed police officers at our schools?
Below are a few towns that have hired armed police officers for their elementary schools since the tragedy at Sandy Hook (and there are certainly more):
1) Sandy Hook (the former Chalk Hill Middle School in Monroe, CT where the children of Sandy Hook are now located)
2) Washington Park School, Totowa, NJ
3) Memorial School, Totowa, NJ
4) Marlboro, NJ schools
5) Butler, PA schools
6) Hillsborough County, FL schools
Wake up, Ridgewood. A tragedy could happen here too.
Why not grocery stores ,liquor stores, churches, etc.,etc.
1) Unlike PUBLIC schools, grocery stores, liquor stores, churches, etc., etc. are privately owned. If the owners of those establishments want to have private armed security, it is up to them to do so (like many banks do, for example).
2) Children are sitting ducks from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and have obviously become an attractive target for those bent on making some sort of statement. They have the right to feel safe in a place where they are mandated by law to be.
Why not just brick up the windows and install thick steel doors in the schools?
Busses should also be converted to armored vehicles and access tunels added to schools.
Children are sitting ducks to any sniper who wants to shoot them through the windows or during transit.
Ridgewood should lead the way in hardening our schools and student transport.