BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — On Tuesday, I learned that armed security guards would be at all 29 Catholic elementary schools in Western New York. On Wednesday, I heard from some parents who reacted to the plan.
Superintendent Joleen Dimitroff, who oversees the Catholic elementary schools for the Diocese of Buffalo, told me Tuesday that they've been working “behind the scenes” since the deadly shooting during a Catholic school Mass in Minneapolis and hired a security firm to place armed guards at the Catholic elementary schools.
WATCH: Below is our report from Tuesday in which we spoke with Dimitroff and other school leaders. You can also read more here.
A letter from the superintendent was sent out to inform school families about the decision, but not everyone is pleased.
One parent who did not want to be identified gave me a copy of a letter she sent to the superintendent, urging her to “reconsider," calling it a "terrible decision," and said she will not send her son to school if there is a gun present.
"I urge you to reconsider this terrible decision; you are putting children's lives in danger. I will NOT send my son to school with a gun present. He isn't allowed to have peanut butter in his classroom to protect kids, but you want a STRANGER strolling the halls with a GUN?" the parent wrote.
But another parent reached out with a different response. Marc Bruno, a long-time Buffalo Public School teacher, sends his son to a Catholic school in the city and praises the decision.
"No one wants to see guns in the schools...if you look at some of the previous shootings, principals have thrown their bodies at the gunman, and you know, our bodies don't stand a chance against a bullet,” said Bruno.
Bruno said he doesn’t like guns but believes this is a necessary step.
“This action by the diocese shows they take it seriously,” Bruno said. “It's heartbreaking that we even need this in schools, but it is what it is.”
The superintendent told me that their agreement with the security firm will have consultants who will look at each school's security protocols.
“This incident that happened in Minneapolis was something that shook us to our core,” stated Dimitroff. “We're in the process of working that out. We're confident that those measures, with security guards in place and their full day from the beginning of the school day to the end of the school day.”
