Community Corner

Patch's Poll: Would You Pay More in Taxes to Have a Police Officer in Every School?

Some are calling for police protection in the wake of Newtown school shooting.

Many school districts — in Connecticut and across the country — have called on police departments this week to station officers at every school building after the mass shooting that left 20 schoolchildren and six staff members dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Friday.

But the measure is temporary. Most police departments don't regularly assign officers to every school, particularly elementary schools.

According to Wednesday's New York Times, about one-third of public schools "had armed security staff in the 2009-10 school year, the most recent year for which data are available." Most of those officers were stationed in high schools.

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Some say the added protection would be worth the cost of paying for additional officers, while others say armed officers might scare young children and escalate the atmosphere of violence.

Would you pay more in taxes to have police officers in every school, every day?

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Take our poll and tell us in the comments.


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