Police officers were pulled from New York City public schools after the massacre in Florida, prompting outrage from some parents and teachers.
The NYPD officer assignments were eliminated by Mayor Bill de Blasio because he said the new community policing units will go into schools instead, while patrolling neighborhoods.
The decision predated the Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland that left 17 people dead but that shooting has left parents and teachers advocating for the positions in the city to be restored.
The Parents-Teacher Association is calling for the NYPD to restore the full-time police officer positions in schools, and leaders have collected more than 1,000 signatures.
“It’s ridiculous. All over the country they are telling you ‘arm the teachers, get an officer in your school.’ New York City had a designated officer and they are actually cutting the program . . . they are making us less secure," co-president Linda Lovett said. “You are talking about 5,000 people in a one-block radius, and you’re telling me you can’t designate one officer?”
Councilmen Steven Matteo and Joe Borelli have asked de Blasio to place armed officers in all of the city’s 1,700 schools, but the mayor previously said that it would cost too much.
All schools have at least one school safety agent, but safety agents do not carry guns.
There was an armed resource officer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, but he did not enter the building when the shooting occurred.
The officer, Scot Peterson, was later suspended, then abruptly resigned.
For instance, in Escambia County, all high schools had two officers but after the cuts they only had one.