When does a crazy idea make sense?
The answer is when a school district considers placing armed guards in schools.
Schools are supposed to be places of learning, something that does not seem consistent with people walking around school buildings that may have already had security upgrades done, carrying firearms.
But in a country where guns are the No. 1 cause of death among children aged 1 to 19, assigning armed guards does not seem so crazy.
This is not to say that adding firearms is necessary or is the right idea. But it does make it reasonable to consider.
Levittown school officials are the latest on Long Island to consider adding armed guards throughout district buildings — a change administrators said could be implemented by the beginning of the next school year.
More than 20 school districts across the Island have opted to add armed guards in recent years. Only two are in Nassau County – Farmingdale and Massapequa. Both are on Nassau’s border with Suffolk.
Levittown, which has 10 schools, serves about 7,200 students and employs around 1,500 staff members, is considering two proposals: hiring a private contractor or arming existing security personnel.
The private contractor model generally involves having armed guards outside school buildings who respond to active threats. The cost to the district would be about $750,000 to $1 million per year, according to a security presentation on the district’s website.
The second proposal would arm existing security personnel throughout the district.
Superintendent Todd Winch said the district has recently increased its number of security aides to 45, many of whom have a background in law enforcement. The cost of the proposal to arm them would range from $350,000 to $750,000 a year, according to the presentation.
“Those are the people that we know, that we’re comfortable with,” Winch said. “We believe it’s a better model.”
One question for the school district is whether the money spent on arming school personnel or hiring an armed private security force would be better spent on things like hiring more teachers, investing in technology or providing mental health counselors? Things that would improve the quality of education in the schools.
This past spring, the Levittown district surveyed parents, students and staff members about district security. The results, discussed during an August board meeting, found that in all three groups, more than 80% reported feeling safe at school.
The survey indicated that 23.5% of students, 26.4% of staff and 32% of parents supported armed guards as a recommended safety enhancement.
A majority of students — 53.8% — and slightly less than half of parents and staff — 43.6% and 47.3%, respectively — called for more mental health support.
A second question is whether extra security is needed.
Nationally, there have been 15 school shootings this year that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to an Education Week analysis, a news organization that covers K–12 education
There have been 236 such shootings since 2018. There were 39 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year. There were 38 in 2023, 51 in 2022, 35 in 2021, 10 in 2020, and 24 each in 2019 and 2018.
Of the 15 school shootings that resulted in deaths or injuries this year, seven people were killed, including four students and three school employees. Forty-one people were injured.
None of the shootings this year took place in New York State, whose gun laws are among the strictest in the country and have among the lowest shooting deaths among the 50 states.
But parents in Nassau County and every other corner of the United States are still haunted by the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, where 26 people were killed – 20 children ages 6 and 7, and six adult staff members.
The same is true of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, when 19 children were killed.
Some might argue that spending on armed guards can be considered an insurance policy, much like the one you have for your home. The odds may be small that something bad will happen, but you spend money every year just in case it does.
Others might argue that with the odds so small of an incident taking place in Nassau County, armed guards are an unnecessary expense, a motivated shooter might succeed even in the face of the additional security and the money could be better spent on something else.
This does not answer the question of how we protect the more than 4,300 children and teens who are shot and killed annually in the United States, according to Everytown, a gun safety group.
