Ladies and gentlemen please remember at the BoE meeting the Wednesday after the tragic shooting was open floor where they discussed the issues of police officers at schools and parents put there input on the security for our school children. Please remember these are police officers not armed guards. Unfortunately times are changing and this is only a temporary fix till a permenant plan of protection goes into place. I applaude the townships descision. My children who were afraid to goto school now feel more secure and don't cry to get on the school bus. The were not made aware of the newton massacre at home but by others talking so if this is what must be to help them feel safe so be it. We can't protect everyone from every situation but we can try and as a parent I feel that we need to try and help teach our child to be aware of there surroundings and the people in it. I survived 911 and for me our life as a nation changed from that day and now this event will make a change going foward. As a parent we take a vow to protect, love and teach our children. As a country we send our women and men from our armed forces to protect our boards and fellow neighbors what makes this any different if we can't protect on our own soil then as a nation we are weak.

The Rabbi makes a lot of sense to me. Now I heard that Totowa is having TWO cops in each school for a cost of $200,000, which supposedly they have just lying around.

wake up and smell the coffee!! Safety first political agendas and debates later!

the cops will not provide anything. it is just another step to a united nations controlled police state. towelheads fly planes into the wtc and now we need to show ID when we go into a building and be tracked everymove we make? Algore and the UN are behind all of this playing you people like puppets.

Great letter, Rabbi, but when is the last time any board influenced by mob rule came to a logical decision based on common sense and rational thinking? As your good book says, "Men plan; God laughs." I guess we should be grateful that they're not rounding up all of the mentally impaired and putting them in camps, although I'll bet there won't be many more group homes for the mentally ill approved in Marlboro any time soon. The fundamental misunderstanding here is that a deranged killer with a death wish is going to be deterred by a cop who embodies the fulfillment of his ultimate fantasy: to die in a blaze of glory and gunfire. My prediction is that the next time a nut with a final determination to commit suicide by cop is going to know right where to go, but this time he'll be even more determined to take out as many victims as he can in order to create the even greater glory in his sick mind. At Columbine, the two gunmen were leaving the school they had just shot up when they saw the cop who had been stationed there returning from his lunch, whereupon they went right back in and started the shooting all over again.

Weber, the self proclaimed leader of the Diaspora, is pushing his own Ultra Left Wing agenda. He ran to all the media outlets he could find and gave them copies of his letter. He even put it on his congregational blog. I wonder if his Board of Trustees or the members of the congregations approved of his actions and casting them in a light that is against taking all possible measures to protect our children. Weber is a supercilious bag of wind whose only agenda is to further his personal political agenda, the kids be damned.

If these temporary measures save one child, isn’t it worth it?

Rabbi's letter goes to the cost of the Police Officers. If its only a small chance that the presence of these professionals prevent a killing of the students and faculty its worth it. There is no liberty issue here at all. Our schools are meant to provide a safe learning environment. It not a supermarket or shopping mall atmosphere.

So now there's a price to protect children? Shame on you. In a time where all people do is complain about there not being enough jobs, our town just gave people jobs! My kids didnt even mention the police officer. Police are not suppossed to be scary to kids! Your children should be able to comfortable around police and if they are not well then why did u instill fear? We also need to stop making such a big deal about this because all we are doing is drawing attention to ourselves which is never good!

I agreed 100% PERCENT, HE COULN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER! LOVE THAT LETTER.

Rabbi Weber is missing the point. All he has to do is look to Israel and see the importance of security. We as a nation are complacent in dealing with threats both without and within. After 911, for a brief time, we began to see security in NYC in public places. Everybody complained about the intrusion into their privacy, and eventually the security measures ceased.
We have more threats from within. We all are moved by massacres like Newtown and Columbine. So much so, that shootings with only two or three people that occur in public places barely make the news.
We have a serious problem with violence in the US, and we are doing nothing to address it. Our malls and movie theaters are soft targets. As are most of our public places.
IT IS time to think about spending money on our security. The irony is that the same people who complain about conspiracies and control are the people who support unfettered access to guns and assault weapons.
Our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have accomplished nothing of long term success. We spent trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. As soon as we leave these countries they will go back to being the way they were.
That money would be better spent on making Americans more secure to live their lives here in the US.

I respectfully disagree. If only one child's life is saved by the presence of an armed officer in the schools, the cost is justified. Perhaps an armed officer could not have prevented all of the deaths in Newtown. But maybe the shooter would not have made it so far into the school, saving many of the children and staff members who died. We may not have the capacity to protect every supermarket, every library, every bus in Marlboro- but nine schools where all of our children spend their days? As I said before- if one child is saved, the cost is justified.

Mr. Pickus; playing devils advocate we can achieve the same without police or armed guard presence. Using Newton as an example the shooter gained entrance to the building by shooting out a glass door; let's replace glass doors with metal or security glass doors. Once inside the building he had unfettered access to the whole building; how about installing security gates inside of the building, putting in video and audio surveillance systems to be monitored by the police dispatch. There are many alternatives and solutions we just need to take the politicians out of the conversation when it comes to safety of our kids. Shame on anyone trying to capitalize on this tragedy for their own political gain.

Evan! You are very eloquent and i agree with you! Case well made! Have a great day!

Short term solution: The presence of armed guards at each of our nine schools.
Long tem solution: "If our district has the money to pay all these police officers, couldn’t we, instead, hire more teachers? I have to believe that every student in our town would benefit every day from smaller classes, more personal attention and perhaps even enough teacher-student interaction to be able to recognize a student in trouble and get help before he or she decides to go on a killing spree."
- I think more individualized attention to the students could go a long way. Maybe more guidance counselors as well? Someone should be questioning the ratio of students per guidance counselor at Marlboro High School. Also, the rate of occurrence at which they meet?
- I think our schools should be implementing programs and interactive workshops that will help to promote prosocial skills.