NJ town to station armed cop at schools

NY Post ^ | 12/23/12 | SUSAN EDELMAN

[jimbo123]

Don’t mess with Marlboro Township.

The leafy, well-heeled New Jersey suburb will station a permanent armed cop in each of its nine schools starting Jan. 2.

It’s apparently the first district nationwide bent on packing heat in every schoolhouse since madman Adam Lanza gunned down 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.

“We’ve made a collective decision as a town that we need armed security in each of our schools,” Mayor Jonathan Hornik told The Post.

“With this new evil, you can’t just sit there and hope that it doesn’t happen in your town. We must protect our kids.”

[Intolerant in NJ]

There’s virtually always a cop car parked at the middle school across from our home in our town - also one at the elementary school but strangely not usually one at the high school - now whether there’s actually a policeman inside the schools is another story, but maybe the car outside is enough.....

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

I can see a lunatic walking up quietly and just taking out the guard.

* * *

I agree; I think the air marshall model, where the security is undercover, is more effective. I’d like to see an armed “school marshall” in plainclothes, plus volunteer administrators and teachers who receive permission to carry and advanced training in how to do it effectively. (And maybe they would need special techniques or attention to how to carry safely around small children, or maybe more importantly, around older kids who might be itching for trouble.) But it would be better if outsiders knew that the school had armed protection ... but not exactly where it was.

[NorthWoody]

My thoughts exactly. Let’s not have a flashing neon sign on the person with the gun; it should be unknown to anyone who the security personnel are.