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Connecticut School Leaders: Don't Arm Educators in Wake of Newtown

School officials from across the state met in a symposium this week to discuss school safety issues arising from the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. One take away from the meeting was that they don't want guns in schools.

Amid increasing calls to arm educators in the wake of the Newtown shootings, school leaders who met earlier this week in Southington agreed that guns have no place in Connecticut's schools.

Trumbull's schools have posted police officers but parents and officials all opposed armed private guards. 

The gathering of the Connecticut School Security Symposium on Monday in Southington drew more than 800 educators. The event was closed to the public, but a group of schools officials talked to reporters on Tuesday during a press conference in West Hartford, according to the website CT News Junkie.

Joseph Cirasuolo, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, told the website that officials discussed a wide range of issues related to school security during the symposium, including how schools should safegaurd against tragedies like the Newtown shootings. Some of the issues covered, Cirasuolo said, included installing bulletproof glass in schools and improving buzzer entry systems. 

He said there was no single or easy solution to the matter of school security, though the education officials dismissed the idea of arming teachers or other school officials, the website reports.

“One of the things that was recommended against very strongly was arming teachers and principals, because when it comes down to it you can make sure somebody knows how to use a firearm — shoot it — but you need to make sure the person that has the firearm knows how to use it in a school setting,” Cirasuolo told CT News Junkie.

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JonIrenicus April 13, 2013 at 02:28 pm
It would be nice if crossing the Bridgeport into Trumbull border was noticeable- a sudden shift fromRead More fast food and dilapidated buildings to greenery and well maintained buildings. Unfortunately that strip of Main St has had its character erode as commercial zoning inched north. The imposing structures of the mall and Merritt make it very difficult to see this no man's land as remaining residential for much longer.
Tom Pieragostini April 6, 2013 at 11:16 am
I'm ashamed that in the recent past, Trumbull town planners have chosen to use the beautifulRead More historic Merritt Parkway as some sort of cheap zoning boundary that, depending on which side you live on, determines if your neighborhood will remain residential or become commercial. It was even suggested in the foreword of a book about the history of Trumbull, that the Merritt Parkway somehow "bisected" the town and the founders were wise to locate all new commercial development south of it. It doesn't bisect the town. We all have to live with the bad decisions other people make, but nothing did more to devastate our town "center" than to locate new development on our southern border. Now we're left with a confusing gateway from Bridgeport into Trumbull along Main Street. When people ask now - are we in Trumbull yet? The answer is - yes, we have been for the last half mile...