While not a part of Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Feser's 2013-2014 budget proposal, Dr. Feser did note during a press conference last week that she has had conversations with Mayor Ben Blake and Milford Police Chief Keith Mello about adding School Resource Officers in Milford Public Schools.
School Resource Officers are specially trained police officers who carry guns and become part of the school's environment.
SROs would be part of the Mayor's budget. Dr. Feser was looking to add one SRO at each high school, Jonathan Law and Foran, as well as two or three additional officers throughout the middle schools.
Dr. Feser had talked about adding SRO's prior to Sandy Hook.
"Many districts in CT have SRO's in place. It's not a new concept, it's been around for a very long time," said Kathy Bonetii of Milford Public Schools.
Attempts were made to reach the Connecticut State Department of Education regarding the number of School Resource Officers throughout Connecticut.
Dr. Feser described School Resource Officers as a "wonderful benefit in and out of school, wonderful for the community."
Dr. Feser noted that she agreed with Governor Malloy's recent State of the State speech in which he said "more guns are not the answer," but Dr. Feser pointed out that armed Milford Police Officers are already in Milford Schools, teaching the D.A.R.E. program, as well as being present at other school functions and events.
frank priviti
Do I want to see armed staff at schools? Of course not..but I believe they will act as a deterrent to potential intruders.. All of those commenting who are -anti-gun- have valid points but I believe your view might change if a lunatic shot down your children...No one ever thinks it can happen to them--and when it does it's always "what should have been done to prevent it in the first place"............I hope one day we live in a world we never have to lock doors or have to worry about a mass shooting but until then let's do the best we can to keep the kids safe..there is no perfect solution but atleast the administration are making moves.. After we buff up security I would definitely like to see our nation do more to assist those who are mentally ill with violent tendencies..also people reaching out to those who are society's outkasts or lonely..
The Supt of Schools is only stating a wish list as she knows the city, state and federal governments do not have the means to fund this expense. I mailed the BOE my solution toward protecting our schools students and hope they will adopt it. It involves a onetime cost of new classroom doors.
I am seeing a conflict too. Is Dr Feser calling for actual Police or are we going to hire Resource Officers? What exactly is a resource officer?
I also agree with creating a secured vestibule entry system, one that much like a bank would trap a person with bad intentions, but getting approvals and getting a system like this built takes time, an officer could be there tomorrow. Finally your security is only as secure as your worst staff member, meaning that no doors on the perimeter should be propped open and nobody regardless of who should be allowed entry via any door other than the front (or designated) entry door.
Stop putting the parenting job on society and take responsibility for actively raising your children with better ethics and morals than the inner city gang members that continually demonstrate no respect for human life. Talk to your children. Teach your children RESPECT, teach your children to have RESPECT for firearms. I commend Dr Feser for suggesting an option that may not be popular. Please protect my children by placing armed resource officers at the schools as a first line deterrent. I hope it never happens again in the rest of my lifetime because we don't want reports after the fact - we want that protection to have the ability for stopping a threat of that nature forever more before they get a step inside.
There is also the question of the training and policies for armed school guards. Even highly trained individuals, such as police officers, will tell you that almost anything can happen in a shooting situation. Last year several cops responded to a shooting near the Empire State building in NYC. Within minutes eight unarmed, innocent civilianns were shot by mistake. What happens when a SRO with six weeks of training sees a suspicous UPS guy, or an angry parent? As far as guards as a means of detering shooters -- most of these killers seemed to have planned to die as part of their rampage. I don't think an armed guard will do much to prevent that.
The whole concept is that we will now send our children to a prison every day, because of NRA opposition to reducing the 300,000,000 guns available now. Restrict ammunition as we do with tobacco and alcohol and also shorten its shelf-life with added tags to trace it. This will also do much to reduce the problem. The second amendment says nothing about this and I don't worry about the few who load or reload their own ammo. Attacking a school is not a criminal act, but one that has a mental situation. The same holds true for shooting up a theater. We would worry if this same person without a gun would think about using arson instead.
That is worth repeating. Of course what happened was terrible, and for us close to home, but we should examine what are the expected costs and expected benefits are of any proposal before making changes, both here, and in Hartford, and in Washington.
Today SWAT, ATF and others are searching for a shooter at Lone Star college in TX.