Following in the footsteps of Point Pleasant Beach schools, officials have announced that Brick schools would have armed guards patrolling the halls this coming school year.

Brick Police Chief James Riccio said the town is hiring officers under a new certification - Class III Special Officers - that allows retired police officers and state troopers to come back to work at part-time salaries.

Late last week, the Board of Education voted to hire four security officers at a daily rate of $185, with a cap of $33,000 per year. All of the officers will be armed, and are retired from either the Brick police department or the New Jersey State Police.

Of the four officers hired Thursday will be split around town, with two working at Brick Memorial High School, one at Brick Township High School, and one at elementary and middle schools on a rotating basis.

maps.google.com
maps.google.com
loading...

Is it just me, or does that type of assignment seem odd? I know Memorial is larger than Brick, so it would need more security...but to have just one officer rotate around the rest of the district's elementary and middle schools seems sort of...pointless. Brick has two middle schools (Veterans Memorial and Lake Riviera), and eight elementary schools. I know the gut instinct is that a high school is more dangerous, but it's not like we haven't seen younger kids bring a gun to school, or god forbid seen an elementary school attacked like Sandy Hook. To have one officer bounce between ten schools seems like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound, so to speak. If the officer is at Emma Havens, how is he supposed to be protecting Midstreams?

I said this last time, and I still stand by it: While I don't believe that bringing guns INTO schools will solve the problem, the safety of my child is paramount to anything else.

More from 105.7 the Hawk:

More From 105.7 The Hawk