Garfield schools to arm security officers
Garfield NJ May 18 2019 Garfield will soon join the ranks of districts with armed guards providing security in the schools.
Although resource officers have been in place for more than 15 years, the Board of Education this week decided to arm security guards effective June 1.
Trustee Frank Barber said he is “happy to see and hear that finally the security officers will carry weapons.”
“I think in this day and age, with everything that has been going on recently in schools, it’s about time,” Barber said.
Talk of arming the guards first came about last year in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. Trustee Kenneth Conte said at the time that “a gun-free school is a magnet for a tragedy” in calling for arming the district’s 15 or so security guards.
NorthJersey.com
