NJ Town Puts Armed Guards in Schools

January 4, 2013

Armed guards are now patrolling schools in Marlboro, NJ.

An armed, uniformed member of the township police department was posted at each Marlboro school on a temporary 90-day basis while the school district figures out a long-term solution, said an NBC4 New York report.

"Ask any parent in Newtown if they wish they had an armed guard in their school," said Marlboro Mayor John Hornik in the report. "The world changed after Newtown."

Hornik said the armed guards, first posted Wednesday morning, will "calm the public" and "provide a deterrent." He wants to see what security reviews show before deciding what needs to be done in the long term in township schools, the report said.

Marlboro appears to be the only district in New Jersey that has taken these measures, said Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators.

"Twenty or 30 years ago, people were worried when police were at a school," Bozza said. "Now they're worried when they're not there."

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