Armed school resource officers will patrol middle schools in Norwich.
In the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last December, Norwich school district leaders placed an extra emphasis on school safety and made it their mission to bring officers back to their schools.
The Norwich City Council voted unanimously last night to approve an ordinance that will use last year's Board of Education budget surplus to bring back school resource officers.
The ordinance will allocate the board’s $150,000 excess from the last fiscal year toward reinstating resource officers at the city’s two public middle schools, the Kelly School and Teachers' Memorial.
Each school will have one assigned officer.
Funding for the city’s resource officers was dropped in the wake of budget cuts and other expenses.
At the council meeting, the district superintendent said she is in full support of the ordinance and is looking forward to a great relationship between the officers and the school system.
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Norwich public schools have also added panic buttons, and the Kelly Middle School has more than 50 security cameras in place throughout the building.
Norwich is just one community to add armed police to schools.
When school started in Enfield on Tuesday, amred guards were in place.
