Raimondo Says Armed School Resource Officers Should Be Determined by Communities
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
In Maryland on Tuesday, a school shooting was over within seconds and police are crediting the actions of the armed school resource officer. Governor Raimondo continues to say schools are not the place for guns, but yesterday her spokesperson said that the decision to have armed guards at schools is ultimately up to the cities and towns in Rhode Island.
“When a 17-year-old gunman walked into Maryland's Great Mills High School on Tuesday, the swift action of the school's sole resource officer, Blaine Gaskill, was instrumental in bringing the incident to a quick end. Gaskill's response was hailed as an example of exactly what a resource officer is supposed to do in such a circumstance…’He responded exactly how we train our personnel to respond,’ St. Mary's County Sheriff Tim Cameron told reporters,’ according to CNN.
Raimondo’s spokesperson Josh Block said on Tuesday after the Maryland events concluded,”We need to work within each community to determine how best to keep students safe. If local communities determine that school resource officers are an appropriate part of their security plans, it is absolutely critical that the SROs get the training that’s necessary to respond to an emergency.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“Governor Raimondo believes that schools should be places of learning, not prisons, and she also believes the answer to gun violence is not more guns in our schools. We need a statewide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and we need to ensure every school has secure windows, doors that lock, and intercom systems that work,” said Block.
Last month Raimondo became the first governor in America to take executive action to establish a statewide 'red flag' policy to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who pose a danger to themselves and others. Since her signing ceremony, the executive order has come under fire from the ACLU and gun advocates who say the order is unenforceable and unconstitutional.
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