Starting Wednesday, students at the high school, elementary school and middle school in the Monmouth County town of Marlboro will have armed officers on campus.
Some 8,000 students attend the schools, and officials are calling the measure a prevention method. They say it is a step that they felt they needed to take after the tragedy prompted them to revisit school safety and security.
There was already an armed guard outside the high school and another that visited the other schools, but the security will now be a permanent fixture at all three schools.
Many parents have come out in support of the move since it was announced, as did Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik.
"Based on what happened in Newtown, the tragedy up there, we believe we have to revisit our entire security protocol, like many jurisdictions have to do in the country right now," he said.
Not everyone agreed with that sentiment, though.
"I understand the impulse to put guards in schools, but I think in the long run, that's not the message we want to give our kids," resident Joann Angel said. "That the only way they are safe is if people with guns, armed, follow them around...I think the problem is bigger than just putting somebody at the front door."
Officials plan to monitor the new measures to see how they work.
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