Nutley parents seek armed guards in schools

Five Nutley parents have asked the township and the school district to assign armed guards to the schools.

The request follows a security threat that closed Nutley public schools on Friday, along with The Phoenix Center, which teaches students with autism, multiple disabilities, and behavioral and intellectual disabilities in the Essex County town.

A video posted on Instagram depicting gun violence did not appear to pose an immediate danger to any school within the district, Nutley police said. However, it prompted a swift response from police and the Nutley school district on Thursday night to cancel Friday classes and after-school activities.

The request for armed guards in Nutley schools follows the mass killing of 17 students and faculty members on Wednesday, Feb. 14, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The letter: Nutley schools need armed guards, metal detectors after threat

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Also in the aftermath, Mahwah's community and Mayor William Laforet are upset after a threat made by a Mahwah eighth-grader against a school earlier in the year was not made public until Friday.

North Jersey conversations are turning toward assigning Class III special law enforcement officers to New Jersey schools. These are police officers who retired in good standing from New Jersey law enforcement agencies. Their wages are usually funded by a shared-services agreement between a municipality and a school district.

Another option is for local police officers to be trained as school resource officers and serve in a school district.

“As a parent of a kindergartner, I am overcome with incredible sadness, and, in all honesty, fear,” Nutley parent Erica Zarro wrote Friday in an emailed letter to Mayor Joseph Scarpelli, Public Safety Commissioner Alphonse Petracco and Schools Superintendent Julie Glazer.

She and her former husband, Frank Zarro, are the parents of Lincoln School kindergartner Logan.

"Our children are our most precious ‘belongings’ that we entrust in the school district on a daily basis," her email said. "It begs the question of why we do not consider having armed guards in our schools, such as a retired police officer or retired veteran with a carrying permit.

“Even having an unarmed guard or metal detectors would be a better solution than nothing,” she wrote.

The Zarros, as well as Nutley parents Vanessa and Craig Dziura and Nicole Donaire-Vasquez, signed the letter.

The letter writers and other parents intend to address their concerns at the Nutley Board of Education meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26, after the district’s winter break, Zarro told The Record and NorthJersey.com.

“We can’t change the gun laws right now, but we need to do something,” she maintained.

“They need to be screened and not just hire anybody,” Zarro said of assigning armed guards to schools.

Securing the schools shouldn't be the responsibility of school administrators or teachers, she maintained.

“We are in essence sending our teachers, principals and other school staff to ‘protect’ our children every day, as if they don’t have enough responsibility in teaching and mentoring them,” the letter writer stated.

“A teacher in Florida jumped in front of a bullet to save his students, and now his child has no father,” she added.

Not everyone has agreed with her recommendation, "but everyone is entitled to their opinion," noted Zarro.

Some Ridgewood parents, patronizing a charity lemonade stand at which children were raising funds Monday for the Parkland victims, were apprehensive about armed guards in the schools.

“I don’t think that is the solution, but this is a time when schools should take a look at security plans and make sure everything is good,” Michael Lawson said.

Theresa Jennings agreed that armed guards are unnecessary.

“I don’t think that schools can do anything more. They are doing all they can," she noted. "It’s a matter of gun reform. No one needs an automatic weapon.”

Sheri Haug observed that it’s a complicated issue, but that armed guards are probably not the answer.

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In agreement

In Nutley, Juvenile Detective Sgt. Michael Padilla works closely with Nutley public schools.

Public Safety Commissioner Alphonse Petracco supports police officers assigned full time to guard the local schools.

“That’s not my decision to make. This is the Board of Education’s decision,” Petracco said on Monday in backing the citizens' suggestion. “Do I support it? I do, one hundred percent.”

“I’m an advocate of putting police officers in the schools,” the commissioner told The Record and NorthJersey.com. “Times have changed, and I believe it’s a necessity today.”

It not only applies to threats but also serves as a deterrent, Petracco said.

There are seldom reports of mass shootings in urban schools, where security is high, noted the commissioner, adding that suburban schools also need protection.

“As the parent of a fourth-grader at Spring Garden School, I would feel more comfortable if police officers are in the schools,” said Petracco, emphasizing that armed personnel would have to be trained law enforcement officers, ideally with Class III certification.

The fastest Nutley police could respond to a school threat is two to three minutes, while a trained officer would be onsite immediately, the former mayor stated.

“If he saves one life, isn’t it worth it?” Petracco said of an officer stationed in a school.

Glazer, the schools superintendent, could not be reached for comment.

Cops in schools

Belleville, where her former mother-in-law, Maria Zarro, is a secretary at No. 9 School, “has guards in the schools,” Zarro said.

Belleville Schools Superintendent Richard Tomko on Monday said the armed school resource officers, who are members of the Belleville Police Department, are at both the high school and the middle school.

In light of the incident in neighboring Nutley and the Florida killings, Tomko said, the district seeks to heighten awareness of security issues.

“We’re going to be laying out a campaign, a reminder, ‘If you see something, say something,' " said Tomko. "It’s important we do everything we can to keep our kids safe. We’ll continue to do that.”

In its 2014 study of school security, the New Jersey School Boards Association found that employing a school resource officer, or SRO, is the preferred method of law enforcement presence in schools, according to spokesman Frank Belluscio.

The SRO, who is an active-duty police office, receives training in working with students and performs an educational and counseling function, while providing a measure of security in the school building, the study says.

The association also supported the creation of the Class III special officer category, which allows retired police officers to undergo training reflecting that of the SRO and provide security in the school.

According to New Jersey's Class III pre-certification requirements, which went into effect in July 2017, an applicant:

Must be a retired police officer who previously served as a duly qualified, fully trained, full time officer in a New Jersey municipality or county, or a member of the New Jersey State Police, and currently living in New Jersey

Must be retired from that agency in good standing

Must be under 65 years old

Must pass a psychological exam

Must pass a medical exam and have a doctor complete a Medical Certification Form

Must pass a drug test pursuant to the Attorney General's Law Enforcement Drug Testing Policy

Must have an updated background investigation

Whose break in service must not exceed five years between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018, and three years starting on July 1, 2018

The study explains: "Every school and school district will have varying security needs, depending on the layout of the school building, the age of the students, and the proximity to police headquarters.

"Therefore, NJSBA believes that the decision to hire security personnel and the type of security personnel used (SRO, Class III officer, or other type of security presence) can only be determined locally," the study concludes.

Bergen County

Bergenfield police conducted active-shooter training at Washington School, which serves Grades K-5, over two days earlier this month.

Capt. Mustafa Rabboh said the department performs the drills each year, but that last week's massacre in Parkland, and subsequent threats reported at K-12 districts in Mahwah and Nutley, make such preparation even more important.

Rabboh said people may notice more officers patrolling around the Bergenfield district's seven schools.

"We have a high number of officers that constantly patrol the schools," noted Rabboh. "They've always been doing this. It's nothing new for us. However, some people might see us more, only because they're probably looking for us there."

"Last week is a clear reminder of why we need that visibility," the captain said, referring to the mass shooting in Florida.

Rabboh said it may be time for the department to renew discussions with school officials about employing student resource officers.

"Anyone who knows there's an armed officer inside the school is less likely to try to hit that target, as opposed to, say, a softer target where there are no police officers," he said. "It's a benefit. It's just a matter of the cost."

In 2013, the Lodi Board of Education approved a shared-services agreement with the borough that will allow armed, retired police officers to guard the district's elementary schools.

"The whole idea is to make the district as safe as possible for the children," Lodi Police Chief Vincent Caruso, who also served on the school board, said at the time.

The agreement called for five retired police officers to be hired, one for each public elementary school in the district. School resource officers were already assigned to the middle and high schools.

Passaic County

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, the Woodland Park School District partnered with the municipality to fund a Class III special law enforcement officer, Mayor Keith Kazmark said.

“Right now, it’s one officer for the elementary schools,” Kazmark said. “We’re going to up that to two. The existing officer has also been handling residency issues.”

The district and borough initially intended to add to the extra security to its elementary schools next September, but in light of last week’s tragic event, Kazmark said municipal and school officials from Woodland Park, the Passaic Valley Regional High School, Little Falls and Totowa will meet to hash out updated security measures.

“We’re going to be meeting as a regional leadership team,” Kazmark said.

Clifton Detective Lt. Robert Bracken said Clifton provides three school resource officers.

On most days, there are two officers assigned to Clifton High School. The other officer splits duties between Woodrow Wilson and Christopher Columbus middle schools.

“The police chief is also interested in hiring Class III officers,” Bracken said.

Passaic Mayor Hector Lora said that city has 20 school resource officers, many of whom spend their time in the high school and middle school. Additionally, there are 20 security officers who help safeguard the city's 19 schools.

“The city and school board provide a significant amount of resources,” Lora said. “We want to make sure our kids are safe.”

Morris County

On the first day of school this year, Kinnelon students met new security officer Steve Caputo, a former Bloomingdale police sergeant.

Now a Class III special officer, Caputo was hired after the state allowed retired law enforcement officers to serve part time as armed security guards in public schools.

Last October, the Denville Police Department hired Orlando Soto, who retired from the Orange Police Department after 25 years, as a Class III special officer in the schools.

“I retired fairly young, so I felt it was good for me to continue to work,” the 51-year-old said at the time. “I have a lot of experience with kids.”

Essex County

The Verona Police Department has neither a Class III nor a school resource officer, acting Police Chief Christopher Kiernan said. However, he and Schools Superintendent Rui Dionisio are confident in the security measures in place.

"We have [Detective Joel Martin] assigned as primarily a juvenile detective," the chief said. "He has close ties to the schools, but he is not stationed there now."

In constant communication with the schools, Kiernan noted his department has had three conversations just this past weekend with Dionisio.

"Our school district works closely with the Verona Police Department to regularly practice emergency action plans should such a response ever be necessary, and over the past several years we have secured our schools with the addition of main entrance security vestibules, a visitor management system, surveillance camera system, and staff entry key fobs," Dionisio wrote in a column last week after the Parkland shootings.

"But safety and security within our community is a shared responsibility. We must remain vigilant and keep open lines of positive, constructive communication between home, school and law enforcement," he said.

Staff Writers Matt Fagan and Philip DeVencentis contributed to this article.