Will armed guards in Connecticut schools happen? Here's what 4 districts are saying

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the results of the vote on security guards in Putnam June 28.

On June 8, both the Killingly and Plainfield school boards met for their regular monthly meetings, the first time the groups had convened since a gunman two weeks earlier slaughtered 21 people – including 19 students – inside a Uvalde, Texas elementary school.

Unsurprisingly, school safety was a main topic of discussion, just as it was a decade ago in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown that left 20 young students and six staff members dead.

At both meetings this month, respective superintendents gave board members a snapshot assessment of where their districts stood from a safety standpoint, as well as what additional measures are being explored, though staffing and financial constraints are expected to make one proposed change – more security personnel – a challenge.

In Killingly, an armed constable, Officer Joseph McCusker, has been assigned as the district’s school resource officer, or SRO, since 2020. Killingly Superintendent Robert Angeli said though McCusker, whose work is supplemented by unarmed district security staff, spends the bulk of his time at the high school, he does visit other schools for “spot-checking.”

“It’s pretty rare that he’s reporting unlocked doors or doors propped open,” Angeli said. “A lot of times that is an issue at schools, because schools have so many doors and people exit out them for a variety of different reasons.”

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Early on in the investigation of the Robb Elementary School shooting, Texas law enforcement officials said the gunman likely gained access to the building via a propped door. That scenario was later amended to say the exterior door did not lock properly after being closed.

“Our staff, our administrators are highly aware that poses a safety risk,” Angeli said.

Angeli said he’s had conversations with Town Manager Mary Calorio on the prospect of using grant funding to employ a second SRO. He noted McCusker is employed by the town with his salary cost shared by the district and the town.

But even if hiring approval is granted and money found to hire another SRO, getting that job filled won’t be a quick process, Calorio said. As of July 1, the town will have three open constable slots to fill just to get the cadre up to full strength.

“We’d need to fill those positions first internally before anyone could be assigned to the district and we’re not seeing a lot of applicants right now,” she said. “There’re just not as many people looking to get into that field right now.”

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In the interim, Angeli said he’s had preliminary discussions with McCusker about a proposal to hire armed security guards or providing existing employees with weapons.

Putnam voted to add school security

In Putnam, residents on June 28 voted to spend $280,000 to hire a new Putnam Police Department officer and assign an existing officer as an SRO. That proposal also calls for hiring three armed and certified security officers.

The vote Tuesday featured two questions, which boiled down to whether residents were interested in armed or unarmed guards. Had the question about armed guards failed, voters would have been asked to approve $150,000 to hire four unarmed, but trained, security officers for the school system.

Both expenditures would be covered from the town’s Ash Landfill Account.

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Putnam police Chief Chris Ferace said if the armed proposal passes, a veteran department officer would be assigned to the SRO slot and that person's job back-filled with a new or lateral hire. He said he expects the three armed new hires, in addition to physical security training, to receive medical, de-escalation, mental health and other instruction.

“The plan would be to have an armed security officer in each of our three schools and the fourth – who would not be the SRO - responsible for monitoring camera feeds from those facilities,” Ferace said.

“Having an armed police officer or an individual trained to use a weapon to defend a school reduces the response time to mitigate a violent threat,” he said.” If I had an unlimited budget, I’d have an SRO at every school, but I wouldn’t be able to fill those positions quickly.”

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Ferace said it takes six to nine months of training after an officer’s swearing-in for that individual to be street ready, which partly accounts for the speed of this month’s vote.

“I have until August 23 to submit the names of officers to attend the state police academy for this year,” he said. “That’s a very small window to get officers ready for the next school year.”

Norwich reactivates school resource officer program

The Norwich Board of Education this year approved reactivating an SRO program with Norwich police officers now assigned to cover the district's middle schools.

Plainfield police Chief Mario Arriaga said he’s a staunch proponent of armed security in schools, though the district’s SRO program ended years ago due to budget constraints. Despite not having any officers specifically assigned to the schools, the department is still the primary response agency for the district.

“If I was provided the funding, I’d have SROs back in every school in the district today,” Arriaga said. “We’d need more personnel, but I’d use overtime to cover it until we could make those hires. We’re the ones going in when there’s an emergency and I have a child in the school system.”

Arriaga said every department cruiser contains school building maps, key fobs and emergency “packets” and officers conduct regular building walk-throughs with school staff to fine-tune active shooter responses.

“Part of those interactions is to ensure the schools understand what we need as a responding agency,” he said. “And a big piece of that is communication.”

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Arriaga said he and Superintendent Paul Brenton are working to get existing portable staff radios tuned to the police dispatcher new frequency.

“Having that direct line creates time for us,” Arriaga said. “It means a school employee doesn’t have to go through two or three people if they see something suspicious before we’re notified. They can report it directly to us in real-time without the information getting misunderstood in translation.”

The district employs four security guards, all with law enforcement backgrounds, though two district “sites” do not have such personnel assigned, Brenton said.

Plainville proposes two more armed security guards

Per the school board’s June 8 directive, Brenton in August is expected to present members with a proposal to add two more unarmed security guards as part of the district’s 2023-24 budget at an approximate cost of $50,000.

During the meeting, Brenton gave an overview of existing security measures and plans to improve them. He said a planned annual fall security “walk-through” of every school will be moved up to the summer.

He said district schools possess a total of more than 190 exterior and interior cameras with more scheduled to be added to the Moosup Elementary and School Early Childhood Center. A new criminal background scanning system will be introduced next year for school visitors.

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Brenton said each school participates in monthly “scenario-based” emergency drills with results forwarded to the state. More bollards have been requested for outside school entrances, as have additional door fobs. Brush clearing around fences will also be done to improve line-of-sight views.

Arriaga said it’s unfortunate that it usually takes an incident like Sandy Hook or Uvalde to spark a comprehensive discussion about school safety.

“And it’s even harder for people to stick with it and follow through,” he said. “People’s anger fades.”

John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: After Uvalde, TX shooting, CT schools talk school safety, armed guards