Posted April 3, 2017 3:37 pm by Comments

By Andrew Shepperson

The American Civil Liberties Union does not want school police to be armed.
In an opinion piece published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, ACLU of Pennsylvania senior policy advocate Harold Jordan calls for the disarming of school police. The article has been posted on the ACLU’s website and also tweeted out by the organization.
School police are currently not armed in Pittsburgh, and Jordan and the ACLU are just fine with that.
“Having officers patrol the hallways with firearms sends a negative message to students,” Jordan writes. “It makes many students feel that they are being treated like suspects. It can have an intimidating presence and can contribute to negative attitudes about police, in general.”
Jordan’s argument comes after the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers executive board adopted a resolution two years ago that argues for the arming of school police, as well as a recent Pittsburgh Post Gazette editorial that calls for the same.
Both the resolution and editorial note that Pittsburgh school police officers receive the same firearms training as municipal police and often are the first responders to dangerous situations. Having armed police in schools, they posit, would enhance school safety so long as proper oversight mechanisms were put in place.
However, Jordan argues that there “is no

Source: Guns.com

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