MANALAPAN – Members of the Manalapan Township Committee sought to reassure residents who addressed the issue of school security that the safety of the community’s children is the top priority when those youngsters are in school.
One week after a gunman killed 17 teenagers and adults at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., several residents raised the topic of school security when the governing body met on Feb. 21.
Resident Eric Singer implored Manalapan’s elected officials to hire Class III police officers and place them in the township’s schools.
Class III officers are retired law enforcement officers who are permitted to be armed during their assigned hours in a school.
“The children and parents in Parkland were told their schools were safe. Police have other responsibilities (than schools). We need to afford the police department the ability to hire Class III officers. Our schools are where I send my children and I expect them to be safe,” Singer said.
Municipal officials recently hired a Class III officer who works at Manalapan High School. The parents who addressed the committee asked for Class III officers to be hired and assigned to elementary schools and to the district’s middle school.
Committeewoman Mary Ann Musich said that “without going into specifics, we have officers in our schools. They are aware of what is going on … though no place will be 100 percent safe.”
“The single most important thing we do as town officials is keep residents safe. We are looking at security from top to bottom,” Mayor Jack McNaboe said.
Police Chief Michael Fountain thanked the residents who spoke about school security and said their comments will not go unnoticed.
Dotty Porcaro, the president of the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education, said the board has “a wonderful working relationship” with the governing bodies in Manalapan and Englishtown.
By law, the members of a municipal governing body may not tell the members of a school board how to appropriate funds, but Porcaro said the elected leaders – those on the school board and those on the governing bodies – “all care for the children in our towns.”
“People want information (about school security procedures) that we do not want to give out and then they put that information on Facebook,” Porcaro said. “We are doing the best we can with the resources we have and we will continue to evolve with security.”
