Armed Officers To Be Placed In West Morris Regional High Schools

LONG VALLEY, NJ — The West Morris Regional High School board voted to place armed, Class 3 police officers in both schools in the district starting in September.

This decision is similar to that of neighboring districts and is in response to the Uvalde, Texas school massacre, in which 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed.

According to the board, West Morris Central High School will be allocated armed Special Law Enforcement Officers from the Washington Township Police Department for the upcoming school year. "The district has determined that it is in the best interest for the safety of its students and staff to utilize Class 3 SLEO for the protection of its schools," the board said.

The Mendham Borough Police Department will be providing the Class 3 officers for West Morris Mendham High School.

The Washington Township School District, on the other hand, has not yet decided whether to supplement its current use of School Resource Officers (SRO) with additional Class 3 officers.

"At no time was there ever the thought of getting rid of all of our SROs and replacing them with Class III Officers, or decreasing our SRO program. The fact is that just the opposite occurred, and discussions actually included supplementing the SRO officers with additional Class III officers in the future, so the full-time officers could spend more time teaching, mentoring, and interacting with the children," Chief Jeffrey Almer said.

Read more: New School Resource Officers Hired For Washington Township District

"I have been made aware of numerous discussions pertaining to this issue and the fact that anyone would ever think that I, or others, would look to do anything that takes away from caring for our children, is disturbing, as nothing is more important than the safety of our schools," Almer said.

According to The New Jersey School Security Task Force, the primary distinction between SROs and Class 3 Special Law Enforcement Officers is that, while SROs are specially-trained sworn police officers assigned full-time to protect children and staff, they are not permitted to carry a firearm or exercise full police powers.