MID-HUDSON – The New York State Sheriffs’ Association is calling on the state legislature to provide sufficient funding for at least one armed school resource officer at every grade and high school in the state.
Ulster County Sheriff Paul VanBlarcum believes with appropriate funding, there are sufficient officers in the ranks of all departments to provide the service.
“I think here in Ulster County if we get the funding and all the agencies work together, I think we have enough officers where we can do this here in Ulster County,” VanBlarcum said.
Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois backs the program.
“We provide security for some politicians in the state; we supply security to our judiciary, which is well deserved, but we also need think about supplying security to our children and I think the state should step in with some kind of funding,” he said.
DuBois said the funding spent on security could be exempt from the tax cap if the state cannot provide all the resources to cover it.
There are about 4,750 public schools and close to 2,000 private schools in New York providing grades K through 12 education. The sheriffs’ association estimates that the cost of the proposal would be roughly equivalent to that of adding one teacher to each of the schools.
