It seems like just a short time ago that our Long Island Life & Politics newspaper was one of the first to speak out on the need for Long Island schools to better protect our children from outside shooters.
Because seconds matter in these horrible events, we thought it essential that our children be protected with retired police officers, who are armed and capable of putting down an intruder.
We found it remarkable that it’s taking this long for the mood to shift in this direction, but it looks like we’re finally getting there. Every month, we hear of another district that is employing this commonsense measure that can save lives.
We are not in favor of arming teachers or others who do not have law enforcement training. And we’re certainly not in favor of maintaining the status quo, in which children and teachers are sitting ducks for up to 15 to 20 minutes that it takes for local police to arrive.
We pay money to protect our government officials with armed guards. Why would we not do the same for our most vulnerable — our children?
Kudos to the Riverhead School District for authorizing the armed officers on the high school and middle school level. But why ignore the elementary schools? And let’s make sure that those who are authorized to carry these firearms have sufficient training.
Overall, we are happy to see our schools heading in the right direction.