School monitors’ guns become an issue
Board expected to discuss weapons policy at upcoming meeting
The Saratoga Springs City School District has taken its grounds monitors’ weapons away — at least until the school board allows them again to carry them.
Superintendent Michael Patton disarmed the 14 monitors, most of whom are part-time, after he discovered that the district was out of compliance with current state law. The monitors, who have worked on all eight district campuses depending on the need, differ from school resource officers as they are school employees, not employees of a law enforcement agency. Most are retired police officers and have been working on Saratoga Springs campuses for decades.
To rearm them would require a majority vote from the board. This turn from business-as-usual has ignited a debate in the district over guns and school safety.
“The district takes this matter very seriously, and the safety and security of students is the district’s No. 1 priority,” Patton said. “The discussion has included a significant amount of research into what security options are available that will best meet the needs of our schools and community.”
All those who would be armed, Patton emphasized, would be either active or retired law enforcement officers.
Saratogians for Gun Safety does not want to see the guns return.
“It does not support the school district authorizing any school employee to carry weapons on school property, even if that person is a former police officer,” Susan Steer, a co-founder of the group, said on Monday. “We are parents with children attending district schools and are just as concerned about our children’s safety as anyone else. That said, having armed officers on school grounds does not make our children any safer as demonstrated by the fact that there was an armed school resource officer on campus during the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.”
That school shooting, on Feb. 14, 2018, left 17 people dead and ignited protests from school students across the country calling for gun reform.
Steer also pointed to the teacher and reserve police officer who accidentally fired his weapon in his classroom in Monterey County, Calif., earlier this year, injuring a student, among other incidents.
Saratoga Springs Assistant Police Chief John Catone, who has addressed the board on the matter, said that he believes it’s safer for all concerned if the district allows its grounds monitors to be armed.
“What’s the alternative?” Catone asked. “We have no map where the next school shooting will take place. We have to be prepared and harden our schools.”
He also said that any activeduty police officers with the Saratoga Springs Police Department would have to step down as monitors if the rules are changed. He said currently active officers are ordered to be armed while working in a security capacity. This school year, however, that would only affect one Saratoga Springs police officer, Lt. Sean Briscoe.
Jay Worona, deputy executive director and general counsel of the New York State School Boards Association, said that arming school personnel must be carefully considered.
“It can’t be a knee-jerk reaction,” Worona said. “There is no presupposition that it is safer with firearms. Maybe it is or maybe it isn’t. The district needs to explore all the options.”
Research from the National Center for Education Sciences shows that the percentage of schools with police officers from the 2005-06 school year to the 2015-16 school year has risen from 36 to 48 percent. Of those schools, the percentage of officers who carry firearms is 87 percent in city schools, 97 percent in towns, and 95 percent in suburban and rural schools, according to the group’s Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2017 report.
Catone said the officers the district hires usually have 20 to 35 years of law enforcement experience and are highly trained.
They differ from school resource officers in that grounds monitors are employees of the district, not employees of a police force.
“If they are retired, they are retired in good standing, highly qualified police officers,” Catone said. “They are the cream of the crop, not the class clowns. The school is looking for people who can interact with kids. They are not going to hire anyone who hates kids. Parents are nervous. But I’m a parent who would support this.”
That’s not enough for Saratogians for Gun Safety, which is also concerned for the cost.
“Given our limited resources, we are concerned about whether the school district’s insurer will indemnify any officer who carries a loaded gun, what kind of training that officer will be required to undergo and at what frequency and, how much more it will cost the school district to indemnify armed officers,” Steer said.
Ultimately, it’s up to the board to decide. It is expected to vote on the gun issue at its next meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27.