Felder: “WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?!”

MIDWOOD – We received the following email from the NY State Senator Simcha Felder (D17) today in response to yesterday’s school shooting in Florida. Felder is renewing his call for armed police officers to be stationed at every school, and emergency drills to include all types of attacks, including chemical:

“I am sickened as I write these words, but how long can we stay silent? We wait for emotion to die down, for public attention to focus elsewhere, and then we wait for the next horrible, unspeakable tragedy… children and teachers massacred at school.

Yesterday’s tragedy, the 40th since 2000, highlights once again why we need to take a cold, hard look at my 2 bills, languishing in Albany, that would safeguard our schools and protect our children.

One (S6798) requires the entrance of every school be manned by a trained, armed police officer. The second (S6272) requires all schools to include emergency response drills for all situations including active shooters or other lethal attacks.

We have suffered the worst tragedy imaginable and our thoughts and prayers are with the victims. However, I am calling on all of us to make necessary changes in school security and student/personnel training with immediacy.

Our hearts are in the right place, but without taking decisive action we are failing -and the price of failure is unthinkable.”