Another Long Island School District Adds Armed Guards to Campus

After one Long Island school district announced in January that it would be hiring armed security guards on school campuses, another district is now following suit.

The Smithtown Central School District released a letter on Wednesday saying armed security personnel will be deployed outside schools “to strengthen our ability to respond during times of crisis, as well as deter those who might attempt to cause harm.” The district said the decision was made “with a heavy heart” but was necessary in order to best protect members of the school community.

“The rationale for this increased security is simple: Having armed guards on school property will improve our response time to better protect our students, faculty, staff, and community members,” Superintendent Mark Sekaur and the Board of Education said in a letter. .

It wasn’t immediately clear when the new guards would begin monitoring the school. The district said they would come from security firms and would have to be trained every year. The district said it would not be able to share details such as “the deployment, location and hours of security guards as it could compromise their safety and effectiveness,” but said they would not be in schools.

The decision to add armed guards comes just over two weeks after the South Huntington School District made a similar decision, sparking much controversy among staff and parents. Guards without uniforms and insignia cars stand outside every school in the district and are intended to enter schools only in case of an emergency.

“You just never know. You just never know where or when it might happen,” said District Superintendent Dr. Vito D’Elia.

They were hired in connection with school shootings across the country. But do students, parents and staff feel safer with them? While the idea is to prevent school shootings, some parents have questions about who will stand guard.

“I don’t really like it, it’s something super new, and like I said, who will these guards be? Where to hire them? asked Daniel Gavilla-Castro, mother of a 10- and 6-year-old child.

D’Elia said the guards would need to have law enforcement experience and would only be stationed outside the building.

“A strong part of this is the active training of shooters. They are only used for a very specific threat,” he said.

The armed guards are hired by a third party supplier that costs the South Huntington School District about $750,000 a year. Meanwhile, the school also has various security guards.

“There are people who are excited, feel safer, thinking it will make their job safer, and they all agree,” said Dennis Callahan, who works for the school district. “There are other people who think that this is a path that we should not go down.”

But the superintendent said it was a matter of reaction time. The guard must give the students and teachers a chance to fight in the worst case.

“Why is this even happening in the modern world? We shouldn’t be nervous about sending our children out of the house,” Gavilla-Castro said.