Even with the indelible memories of the Sandy Hook grade school tragedy—only a fraction of elementary schools in Illinois have armed police officers.
And some parents who work in a school office in Palatine think that’s just fine.
“Guns do not belong in a building like that," school secretary Sheree Auge said. "Not in elementary level, not in a building like mine.”
Typically school resource officers or SROs are only found only in high schools and middle schools in Illinois--and not many of them. But the superintendent of Palatine District 15, made up of 15 elementary schools and a learning center is trying to pioneer a change.
“I think it’s a no brainer," superintendent Scott Thompson told NBC 5 in an interview Wednesday.
The idea, discussed openly with the school board for the first time Wednesday night, is unique and potentially controversial: hire retired police officers—who the law allows to carry a weapon in a school—and have them fill empty clerical jobs, in plainclothes, in a school’s front office, with a loaded gun in an ankle holster.
“In my estimation it’s the best way we can keep our buildings safe," Thompson said.
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But what about the skill set combo of armed protection and secretary skills? Not to mention the image of a fortified front office among the youngest and most impressionable.
“I I have big concerns about it," Anita Jamnick, a secretary in the district, said.
None of three women who work in District 15 school offices that NBC 5 spoke to see the benefit.
“It’s just not a place for guns I mean you have too many little kids running around," program assistant Angie Drazkowski said.
But Thompson sees it as the ultimate solution to a nagging concern for all schools housing the most vulnerable among us.
