A new Public Policy Institute of California poll has found that most Californians and public school parents would support having an armed police officer on campus to protect students.
According to the poll, 35% of adults polled said they strongly support the idea, 36% say they somewhat support it, 17% somewhat oppose, and 11% strongly oppose. Support is higher among public school parents. About 1,600 adults, including 279 public school parents, were surveyed.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, who authored AB 68, a bill that would put an armed school resource officer at all California schools. “I talk to people all the time who say we need, you know, better security at our schools, right? I wish it weren’t the case.”
The same survey found about 7 in 10 adults were concerned about a school shooting happening at their local school.
Gallagher said he’s been working on the issue since the 2017 shooting at Rancho Tehama Elementary School in his district. He said he believes an armed school resource officer could have intervened earlier to stop the gunman there, as well as in last year’s shooting at the Feather River Adventist School, also in his district.
However, Gallagher says AB 68 won’t be heard this year after the chair of the Committee on Education, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Democrat, elected to not give it a hearing. Instead it will become a two-year bill.
Muratsuchi’s office says Gallagher pulled the bill after it became clear there would not be time for it to be heard this year.
School resource officers tend not to be a favored option among those who advocate against gun violence.
On its website, Everytown for Gun Safety says “School Resource Officers (SROs) don’t stop school shootings, but research has shown that SROs can harm students in various ways, including criminalizing typical youth and teen behavior.”
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