Guns are coming to Commack schools — where kindergartners to high-schoolers in the Long Island town will be guarded by armed security starting next year.
The Suffolk County school district will station one armed guard at each of its elementary schools and two at both the middle and high schools — joining at least 20 other districts across Long Island that have already adopted similar measures in response to growing safety concerns.
“I don’t like it, but I think it’s necessary,” said Richard Stone, a grandfather in the district, to The Post.
“We need gun control in this country, but that doesn’t seem to be on the table, so what else can we do?” he said. “We’re living in crazy times where people like to come to school with guns and just shoot everyone — it’s madness.”
In March, the school board unanimously approved and added to the district’s proposed budget a one-year $1.2 million contract with the private security firm Covert Investigations Inc. in Ronkonkoma, according to spending documents.
The proposed budget was then green-lit by parents Tuesday when they overwhelmingly voted to pass it for the next school year.
The vote occurred less than a week after another Long Island district went on full-lockdown from a suspected mass-shooting threat.
The “threat” to Long Beach High School in Nassau County turned out to be a hoax.
The caller claimed a 15-year-old student armed with an assault rifle was targeting the school because he was “tired of being bullied.”
Some Commack parents who opposed the budget said they believe security in the district is already great and that there doesn’t need to be an armed back-up at a cost of more than $1 million, given their already high property taxes.
But other parents said no matter what the cost is, they’re willing to pay it if it means their children will be even more safe in school.
“I love it, and I’m all for it,” said Nazia Khan, a parent of a Commack middle-schooler, to The Post.
“We live in a crazy world where things are completely out of control and schools are no longer safe,” she said.
Students seemed to be in favor of the new gun-toting guards as well, with a seventh-grader telling The Post she thinks she will feel safer with armed guards patrolling school grounds — although the idea of guns in the building is still a little frightening.
“What if one of the new guards are the ones who go crazy and start shooting?,” she said.
Commack is now one of at least 20 other districts across Long Island to hire private armed guards since 2018, with 18 of them being in Suffolk County.
Covert, which employs a mix of active and retired law enforcement, handles daily security for most of those districts — covering roughly 155,000 students across the region, according to a presentation at Commack’s March board meeting.
The company bills itself as the largest provider of armed security in K-12 schools on Long Island, according to its website.
The rollout will include training sessions with the current security staff, the implementation of new surveillance tech, and updated district-wide emergency response plans.
They noted that in-building training will be done when students and staff aren’t around — including over summer break.
The Commack school district declined to comment further.
Covert Investigations and Security did not respond to a request for comment.
