A student is reunited with a loved one outside of Apalachee High School after a shooting occurred at the school in Winder, Ga., on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. Two students and two teachers are dead and nine injured in the shooting. A 14-year-old student is in custody for the shooting. © Joshua L. Jones / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
(New York, NY) – It’s October of 2025, and there have already been 53 school shootings in the U.S. this year, that have left 19 dead and 84 injured. Gunmen have fired off bullets on 27 college campuses and 25 K-12 schools across the nation. In the aftermath of every one of those mass shootings, there have been loud calls by both parents and teachers for better security to protect schools.
Some Tri-State area school districts say they are no longer willing to take chances with their students safety and have hired armed security guards that roam their campuses. On Long Island, more than 20 school districts are in the planning stages or have hired armed security personnel. In March of this year, the Commack school board gave the green light to adding armed guards to its eight schools. Last year Farmingdale schools announced it too would post armed guards at all its schools.
There are many parents, staff members and students who say they are not comfortable with guns on school property. In New Jersey, where there is no mandate against armed guards, some districts have successfully pushed back against any armed guard plan by insisting the money could be better used for mental health services for students. Still, a survey by the New Jersey Association of School Administrators last year found around 42% of Garden State school districts had armed security personnel, and other school boards were looking at plans to do the same.
How do schools find the best armed guards once they make the decision to put them on campus? Commack school leaders handed over around 1.2 millions dollars to the private security firm, Covert Investigations to handle the hiring and training of security personnel. The district began stationing one armed guard at each of its elementary schools and two at both the middle and high schools in September. Commack leaders did not want to give out details of their plan for security reasons, but it’s believed those guards posted at schools have either police or military backgrounds and can make salaries from $50,000 to $70,000 a year.
So, in places like Commack many are asking whether schools are safer when they have armed guards? The answer depends on who you ask. A 2023 study by The Violence Project, a group who’s mission is to reduce violence through data and research found no reduction in fatalities in schools where armed guards were in place. In fact, some of the group’s data suggested death rates may be higher in schools with armed security personnel. Other studies have found attackers often look for soft, unprotected locations like schools, and even sometimes do research on whether schools have armed guards. The thought is those armed guards may be foiling plots just by their existence.
