Albany, N.Y. - Law Enforcement Leaders want armed guards at every school in New York.
The State Sheriff Association wants Gov. Cuomo and lawmakers to fund at least one armed school resource officer should be at every grade school and high school in New York.
"This will be an expensive undertaking, but we owe it to our children, and their parents, to provide a safe place for education to take place," says Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts, President of the New York State Sheriffs’ Association. "We spend many millions of dollars to protect a relatively small number of judges across the state, as we should. Surely we can also find the money to protect our most defenseless people – the children we send off to school each day."
They say in a funding request that it would cost roughly the same as adding one more teacher to each school. Including the cost of initial and continual training.
There are roughly 4,750 public schools and nearly 2,000 private schools in New York.
(pictured above: Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts, President of the New York State Sheriffs’ Association)