New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Armed and courteous
Newtown’s school guards are a model for Connecticut
NEWTOWN — They dress in familiar school colors, verifying visitors’ identities in the lobby, and checking the campus perimeter for intruders.
Their friendly demeanor stands out, whether they’re talking with students in the cafeteria or with teachers in the lounge or with parents who visit the school.
But there is nothing casual about the mission of these armed civilian guards, who form the core of a special safety force in a school district that is turning the corner on the Sandy Hook shootings.
“It used to be if you were in a situation with (an active shooter) you would step back, but now, with our training, we go after the target,” says Jim Pacific, 65, a
retired Danbury police officer, and one of nine armed school security officers who work for the Newtown School District. “We are going to go after this perpetrator with all that we have, to try to knock the problem down.”
Newtown’s armed school guards — all retired police officers who carry concealed sidearms — are part of a 19-member civilian school security force that has become a model in Connecticut for districts that want more protection than video cameras and locked entrances can provide.
If a group of state legislators have their way, Hartford would help fund armed school security officers in every district that wants them.
“We need a line item like we have for education cost sharing and special education that the state is willing to stand behind,” said state Rep. Carol Hall, an Enfield Republican, and the chairwoman of a legislative group that recommended 18 school safety bills at the end of February. “In some areas of the state that are anti-gun, you might get some pushback, but if (Hartford) offered money for armed school security guards, we would probably get a 90 percent buy-in.”
Some districts, such as Redding, have already bought in.
“We modeled our armed school security guards on the language used between the Newtown Police Department and the Newtown Board of Education,” said Thomas McMorran, superintendent of Easton, Redding and Region 9 school districts. “It clearly delineates that the ASSOs would receive ongoing training.”
Other districts that have launched armed school security officer programs in 2018 include Derby, Burlington and Harwinton.
Armed school security officers are not to be confused with school resource officers — armed, uniformed, active-duty employees of police departments — who are assigned to schools, often for purposes beyond security.
But under Connecticut law, passed in the months after the 2012 shooting of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook School, armed school security officers have all the resources of a police officer, except the power of arrest.
“Jim and all the other armed guys are retired police officers with at least 15 years of experience,” says Mark Pompano a former Los Angeles Police Department field training officer, who is the director of security for Newtown schools. “There is training they have to complete through the state of Connecticut, and we have an extensive background process before we bring someone like Jim to work in the schools.”
Arming teachers
The spotlight on armed school security officers comes at a time of national debate about providing teachers with guns to protect schools from mass shootings, although there is little chance a Connecticut school district would opt to arm teachers.
“In some states people might think arming teachers is a good idea, but not here,” says Patrice McCarthy, deputy director and general counsel for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.
The one time an armed educator made headlines in Connecticut was when a Newtown Middle School teacher was arrested in
2016 for bringing a handgun to school.
In the national debate, GOP President Donald Trump has suggested arming teachers, echoing the NRA position that a good guy with gun stops a bad guy with a gun.
Connecticut’s all-Democratic Congressional delegation disagrees. Last week, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, introduced companion bills to ban the use of federal money “to train or arm school personnel with firearms.”
If it sounds as though Newtown’s armed school security officers could be part of such a definition, they are and they aren’t, depending on who you talk to.
Jeremy Stein, executive director of Ridgefield-based CT Against Gun Violence, disagrees with arming retired police officers in schools, saying there is no evidence they protect classrooms from gunmen.
“They had armed security at Parkland and it didn’t work,” said Stein, referring to the gunman who killed 17 students and staff at a Florida high school in 2018. “I don’t know of any stories where school security guards defended themselves successfully.”
Murphy disagreed, saying he supports the right of Newtown and other school districts to hire armed school security officers, and that his legislation aims to keeps guns out of the hands of teachers and “other school support personnel.”
Po Murray, chairwoman of the home-grown gun violence prevention group Newtown Action Alliance, is somewhere in between opposition and support.
“I would prefer no guns in the schools, absolutely,” said Murray, whose group opposes arming teachers. “I had a personal discussion about this with the police chief and he made me feel very comfortable that these (Newtown guards) are trained professionals who are under the jurisdiction of the police department.”
Other high-profile groups, such as Newtown-based Sandy Hook Promise, were silent on the issue as of the middle of the week, inasmuch as at least two of the group’s three founders said they did not know the district had armed school security officers.
Murray said that probably goes for much of Newtown.
How many know?
“I only found out about it recently,” Murray said. “I don’t think many people in Newtown know.”
Pompano said the armed guard policy has been discussed regularly in open meetings and has been featured in publications ranging from the New York Times to Popular Mechanics.
Newtown put armed guards in each of its school buildings the first day class opened after the 2012 shootings, and has had them ever since. For the first few months, the school district was paying off-duty police officers to patrol hallways and provide peace-of-mind to traumatized students and staff.
Newtown replaced the off-duty police officers with armed retired officers after the state Legislature passed a sweeping school safety bill in early 2013.
The result: what was once a four-person school security staff with a budget under $200,000 before the shootings, is now a 19member staff with a budget of nearly $600,000.
“I don’t know what we would do without them,” said Lorrie Rodrigue, superintendent of Newtown schools, who said parents not only know about the armed security officers but support them wholeheartedly.
“They are part of our culture now,” Rodrigue said of the armed retired police officers. “If we ever tried to cut them from the budget — it would not be pretty. It would be unheard of.”
Jim’s story
Jim Pacific became a Danbury policeman in 1978 — a job he held for 37 years.
By far the worst day of his career came while he was at the front desk and news of a shooting came over the radio from Sandy Hook.
“It was totally demoralizing for us — just horrible, you know,” said Pacific, a grandfather of 10. “It was the saddest day of my career.”
Pacific teared up several times during an interview this week when speaking not of that horrible day in 2012, but of how grateful he is to provide security for the 5th- and 6th-graders at Reed Intermediate School.
“It is just a tremendous joy to work with these kids,” Pacific said. “It provides me with satisfaction that maybe I have made a positive difference in their lives.”
Newtown police Lt. Aaron Bahamonde said Pacific’s gracious disposition was as important in the hiring process as his career credentials.
“We are only picking the best officers,” Bahamonde said. “These are the officers who are ready to step down from the confrontation of the street cop to an attitude of working together with the schools.”
Bahamonde said an armed school security officer has not so much as drawn a sidearm on school grounds during the life of the program, much less fired a weapon.
“These are all previously certified law enforcement veterans who have retired from the job in good standing,” Bahamonde said. “This isn’t a job for a guy who was a cop for three years.”
It remains to be seen how many Connecticut school districts follow the lead of Newtown and a half-dozen other districts.
McCarthy, the CABE official, said the decision will always come down to a local one, even if the state provides money.
“It is very much going to be in response to the concerns and wishes of the community,” McCarthy said.