Printer Friendly Version - NB School Guards Awaiting State OK for Guns

Superintendent of Schools Scott Schoonmaker is shown here responding to a question from the audience, during the school district's 2013-14 budget presentation to the Town Council. The district is budgeting $135,000 for armed school guards at all town schools.

While all aspects of the town’s armed guard school security program can’t be made public, plans to soon put guns in the holsters of seven guards now on duty and in place are progressing as planned, said Superintendent of Schools Scott Schoonmaker.

The Sound contacted Schoonmaker after a local parent, Gary Cole, notified the newspaper that the guards have been on duty since January without side arms. A New Haven Fire Department first-responder and North Branford parent of school-aged children, Cole has been a visible, and at times critical, voice concerning the district’s approach to school security since the Dec. 14 tragedy in Newtown.

Superintendent of Schools Scott Schoonmaker told The Sound that while the district obiviously did not want to comment in public on how the security program is being rolled out, it is rolling out exactly as planned.

“We’ve been working with the State Police. That’s been the plan all along,” said Schoonmaker, adding school safety has always been the priority.

North Branford responded swiftly to the tragedy by immediately placing police officers in all schools. In January, the officers, who were paid overtime for the service, were replaced by six security guards, hired by the school district together with one guard already on-duty. All seven guards are vetted former law officers with years of experience. North Branford Public Schools is expected to pay $135,000 for the new guard program in the 2013-14 fiscal year.

North Branford is the first school district in the state to hire armed security guards to cover all public school buildings.

In order to that, “...we're going into the security business,” said Schoonmaker.

Once the district's application to incorporate an armed security entity is completed with the state, the school guards will need to complete all required state certification testing before they can assume the license to carry firearms.

Currently, the guards are equipped with radios which have direct police contact, said Schoonmaker. He said the plan all along has been to bring the guards in, purchase guns and apply through the state in order for North Branford Public Schools to employ armed guards.

Gun purchasing was delayed by a deficit in merchandise, brought on by increased demand since Dec. 14, Schoonmaker noted. The guns, which have already been purchased and delivered, are the property of the Board of Education.

Schoonmaker said the school system has applied for the ability to hire its own armed security team through the state Dept. of Emergency Services/Public Protection. The department is a division of the State Police Licensing and Fireams Unit. Schoonmaker said the approval was expected to arrive soon, possibly this week.

“We’re the first ones doing this and right now, we have a person with radio communication to police at every door. We’re ahead of other schools. We’ve steered the course and made changes since December fourteenth,” said Schoonmaker.