As administrators in school districts throughout New Jersey continue to hash out the best solution for keeping children safe after the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Gov. Chris Christie made his stance clear on Jan. 9: Armed guards in school are not the answer.
“There is no silver-bullet solution to this,” the governor said during a press conference in Belmar. “I just think that’s a negative for our kids, to see armed guards in our schools.”
Two school districts — Marlboro in central New Jersey and Totowa in northern New Jersey — have implemented armed police officers standing watch in their schools in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting.
In Marlboro, the move is set to have an initial 60- to 90-day lifespan, until school district administrators figure out more permanent safeguards for the district’s buildings. The tab for the police officers standing guard may have something to do with their post there being temporary — the threemonth assignment is expected to total about $105,000, to be paid by the Board of Education. Christie initially shared his position on armed officers being placed in schools last month. Last week in Belmar he reiterated his assertion that, aside from it not being good for children, it is not foolproof.
“Because remember something, how many are you going to put in?” he asked, pointing out that if a guard is posted at a school’s front door, a shooter could get in through another entrance, having access to students before the guard could reach him.
The issue must be examined through a larger lens, according to Christie.
“You cannot consider, in dealing with this problem, just the issue of gun laws,” he said.
Mental health issues and the stigma surrounding them also need to be addressed, Christie said.
He pointed out that if Newtown shooter Adam Lanza had cancer, as opposed to a potential mental impairment, that medical issue would have been out in the open and dealt with.
Because of the stigma surrounding mental illness, however, Lanza did not receive necessary treatment, according to Christie.
“We need to treat this as an illness and get people the tools they need to cope with that illness,” the governor said.
Christie also called violent video games to task, saying that Lanza played Call of Duty, a war game, regularly.
Along with saying he would not allow his own four children to play violent video games, Christie asserted that it is inequitable for some people to want to vehemently protect such games under the First Amendment, while the same individuals look to “beat up” the Second Amendment in seeking tighter gun regulations.
“I don’t want to consider one [solution] in isolation, because that’s playing politics,” he said. “If you think that doing just one thing will solve that problem, then I don’t think you have an understanding of the human condition.”
— Contact Jessica D’Amico at [email protected].