Chatham Students Praised For Protesting Armed Officer Hiring

CHATHAM, NJ - Representing the 44 signatories on a letter they submitted, sophomores Amelie Srinivas, Siena Cooney, Emma Haberman and freshman Madeline Boland shared their misgivings about the hiring of armed police officers with the School District of the Chathams Board of Education Monday.

The school district is currently comprised of six schools and serves approximately 4,100 students. In October to Board of Education approved the hiring of two armed officers and a shared service agreement established with Chatham Township made that possibility a reality.

Speaking at the podium provided during the public comment section of the school board meeting all four used prepared statements and touched upon a few common points.

Cooney said that resource officers were on site at three of the four worst school shootings in history and were not effective. Srinivas took a slightly different approach and cited an article that claimed there was no evidence that visible security measures positively impact academic outcomes and may even have detrimental effects in some cases.

Haberman left the podium and roamed the room saying that it seemed obvious that having armed guards in school would do more harm that it would good. Haberman said the reality was if someone wanted to go into a school with an intent to kill someone, police were not going to be able to stop them.

For her part Boland said when she saw an armed officer in school, and saw his gun holstered on his belt, that it was a big wake up call that something was in the school that could potentially harm her.

After they finished speaking, resident Bill Heap shared his praise for the women when he took a trip to the podium.

"I'd like to commend the young ladies for speaking up about guns in schools, they have their doubts, I did my best over the last 18-months to try to convince you guys otherwise," Heap said. "It didn't work out very well, but I'm glad I am not the only one that has doubts about the policy."

Heap was not the only person who commended the speakers. Superintendent Michael LaSusa asked that they remain at the meeting so he could address them.

"These students are sopohmores. It is unbelievable. You are more articulate and intelligent than I ever was or will be. Just absolutely dynamite. I applaud you for your civic mindedness, I bet some of you were at the flag pole last March when you showed some of your support and camraderie for students all over the country who suffered last year," he said. "So I do want to assure you, I know we met here a month ago, but we did try to take into consideration every aspect of this. I think its a perversion of the question to say are you for guns in school, are you against guns in school. It is a ridiculous statement. No one supports guns in school. I don't support guns in school. The question is do we want to increase police officer presence in school."

LaSusa noted that the district has been steadily increasing police officer presence in the school for at least a decade and that there is just no such thing as an unarmed police officer.

"When a police officer takes the oath, part of the gig is that the police officer is armed," he said.

LaSusa said that they did not, as other districts have, take the ill-conceived route and just hire some private security firm.

"I believe, we believe, individuals that our local law enforcement agencies have selected are appropriate in the school setting to help assist us in all kinds of contexts," LaSusa said. "We have 2,200 human beings in this facility every single day, between Lafayette and the high school, we need more than one police officer here. I'd like to see more police officers here."

LaSusa said the aid the officers would provide extends beyond school shootings.

"We have had issues with domestic violence related problems, we have had individuals trespass and gain access to this school, inside the school, while I've been here. We had a student suffer from cardiac arrest, that survived just by the grace of god with the arrival of police officers that arrived just in nick of time," LaSusa said. "We've had more incidents that I can't go into great detail publicly, but a police officer would assist us in a range of ways and I've corresponded with many superintendents who have police officers in their schools and we are kind of far behind in this regard."

As for some of the student's concerns, LaSusa said he sees far more benefits than negatives.

"I think that at the end of the day it is much, much more likely that a Chatham Township Police officer would assist us in helping someone then we'd have a catastrophic accident because of poor training or poor selection of the officer to begin with. I don't think that's likely," he said. "And hopefully we'll never, ever, ever, have to entertain the type of tragedy we've seen in other school districts."

LaSusa, who met with the students last month to hear their concerns, also commented on their preparedness.

"These students were so impressive. You're incredibly well informed, its amazing how well informed you are compared to how informed I was when I was a sophomore. Back in 1990," he said. "Just amazing. So thank you for taking the time to speak tonight, for staying so long and meeting with me last month."

LaSusa also offered to facilitate a talk with the police to help the students be as comfortable as they can possibly be in the school. Board President Jill Critchley Weber suggested that the students keep the line of communication open with LaSusa.

"I would encourage you to continue to meet with Dr. LaSusa, he is right down the hall. He loves coming into the school to have a meeting," she said. "Keep it up. Keep up the good work."

(Photo courtesy of YouTube)

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