Edison Will Add Armed Cops To Schools

EDISON, NJ — The Edison Board of Education voted Monday night to add armed police officers to township schools.

The resolution passed unanimously at a public Board of Education meeting. Off-duty armed uniformed police officers will patrol school grounds for the rest of the year. Officers will be paid $40 per hour, the resolution states. Emergency funds will be used to pay the officers.

A Captain will serve as the Director of Security for the district, and will oversee the armed officers and other security measures within the district's seventeen schools.

It's not clear if the Board will vote again later this year to extend the program into the next school year.

Schools across the nation have been on high alert since 17 people, many of them students, were killed and 16 more injured in a Valentine's Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Threats to schools, many of them turning out to be unsubstantiated, have skyrocketed.

According to The Educator's School Safety Network, there have been 532 school-based threats or violent incidents in the U.S. since the Parkland shooting — an average of 88.7 per school day. In all, 490 schools in 49 states have been threatened or had actual violence happen, according to the group.

Edison is not the first Middlesex County district to add armed security guards in the wake of the shooting. East Brunswick and Monroe both added police officers to their schools in the recent weeks.

Do you think armed police officers should patrol Edison schools? Email Katie.Kausch@patch.com with your thoughts.

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