Belchertown Police To Patrol Schools Monday
December 16th, 2012
BELCHERTOWN, Mass. (WGGB) -Starting tomorrow, there will be additional police presence at Belchertown’s Public Schools. According to Chief Francis Fox, officers will be there at the beginning and the end of the school day. The officers will not go into the schools, but will do patrols outside throughout the day. Chief Fox says he’s doing this to give parents and students “presence and peace of mind”, after Friday’s tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, and that he “takes these things very seriously.”
There has already been an officer assigned to the school district for 12 years.
Chief Fox says the patrols will continue until further notice.
What is wrong here. It takes a horrific incident, then you have people reacting thinking they are doing the right thing.
Reading these comments some people are wondering why all of sudden. Then the comment on overtime. Seems to me towns and cities should start looking at ways to make schools and public buildings safer by other means than having police presence. Maybe keeping all entries and exits locked once school starts. Put metal detectors in place. Everyone has an ID badge. Doesn’t take rocket science to protect your children, just common sense.
Since I know this town hates to pay overtime, It would be nice to know if they have gotten a credible lead on something. I guess my kids stay home tomorrow.
I am guessing this is the tail of the peacock. But I hope I am wrong.
I hope all of the schools from now on have extra eyes watching the parameters, not just Belchertown.
Chief Fox is to be commended for this action. He is being proactive in presenting a better police presence in our schools and I thank him for that. All parents are living in fear right now and it’s nice to know that our local police force, which has always been very keen in their patroling in town, are trying to protect our children even more. Thank you Chief Fox!
Apparently you don’t understand the definition of pro-active. This is as RE-active as it gets. Its also bashing the police state mentality into your childrens mind, forcing them to be ok with armed presence constantly around them. Its mental conditioning that you are naively dismissing. You already have to be buzzed in to every school in MA. Is a beat cop walking the perimeter really the answer? Nope, probably not.
why?
I wish all schools would do this. I don’t want to send my kids to school now, but we have to maintain normalcy. I’m sure every student across the nation will be ill at ease tomorrow at school, as well as their parents.
nothing like making people panic for no reason…. the parents will panic because parents are obsessed with their children’s safety…. kids will panic, because they are going through the ‘world revolves around me’ stage of their lives and will think something is up and should have reason to be worried…. when 9/11 happend and my school showed it on every tv all day, the kids panicked that something was going to happen at our school and a plane would come down…..
it seems odd, thats all. Do not read into it. With all money its going to cost to pay the overtime, you need to wonder about it. but it is a good act of kindness and support, I am all for it. I like Chief Fox, I just cant see them paying the OT for no reason.
im sorry but keeping kids home, isn’t the answer . its very sad that this happened. this tragedy could happen anywhere, malls, movies and stores. people can’t live in lock down.
I wish Palmer Police would also, since 2 schools in Palmer had 3 bomb scares in the last 3 weeks.
Personally, having police presence around my children’s school adds a safer note to my worries. I would rather see an extra uniform here and there if it means that maybe my child’s life would be at stake. God forbid this horrible tragedy happen any closer to home than it already has. Should the police not be near by, certain people would be quick to point fingers at them had this happened here. I hope Chicopee will follow suit. If it means that bad people stay away from their school because a police car drives by frequently, then so be it!
I cant believe ppls comments! I cant believe ppl r complaining about over time… Wth!? We nd 2 put ppl back 2 work. Whats wrong w/that? When I was in high school we had a police team in school or just on campus
Besides apparently the doors being locked werent gd enough seeing as though he shot his way thur
Should all the time!
@Lynette, Palmer high school and Pathfinder have a full time Palmer police officer in the schools. I see him outside one or the other school every morning at drop off. He’s also inside the schools throughout the day. He was there when the bomb threats happened.
Police need to be at the school. Paulb62, you maybe singing a different tune if your son had a knife held to his abdomen on school grounds being robbed of lunch money.
@Judy, since you address me specifically, I will answer you directly– what makes you so positive that I am only referring to the high schools in Palmer? As I do have a child in HS, and have witnessed a police patrol vehicle there myself—I am not referring to HS’s only, as I have also witnessed the none-existence of police vehicles at the other schools in Palmer.
Schools need GOD not police….
We also need to place uniformed police at every work place, church and mall or any other place where people congregate.
i hope chicopee follows suit …after last years shoot out near bowe school where my 2 girls go and now this my girls were scared to go to school this morning but with some talking I convinced them to go and that was realy hard for me to do caust im still nervous about it…..