“One of my highest priorities as a community member, a father and a legislator is protecting our children. When you send your children to school every morning, from the moment they step on the school bus to the second the get off it, you should be able to trust that they will be safe. School resource officers are part of that trust.

“I have long fought to ensure that every school has a resource officer on the premises whose only goal is to look after the security and safety of the students. As the Mayor of East Aurora, I worked with the local schools and the police department to ensure that East Aurora would have an officer. Every parent can agree that it’s important, but I’ve run into resistance.

“Regardless of what side of the aisle you’re on, we agree that our children need to be protected. As a legislator I’ve attempted to bring my dedication to school and student safety to Albany, but for some reason I am always shouted down in committee. Even when I bring the topic of non-lethal forms of defense to the table, I am categorically rejected. I simply can’t understand why the Assembly Majority refuse to acknowledge, after my 7 years, that non-lethal forms of defense can be considered as well. Wasp, tasers, industrial mace, things of this type should be open to consideration.

“Here’s where I get concerned, we should be focusing on every possible avenue to protect our children and students. You’d think with the liberals’ anti-gun platform they’d accept these non-lethal options, to be included, but of course they wouldn’t allow a reasonable discussion to take place, it doesn’t serve their narrative.

“It’s this push back that has motivated me even further to ensure that every school and every school building has a school resource officer who is trained, motivated, and most of all, dedicated to protecting their charges. It’s something that should be easily funded and easily passed, but my ‘peers’ across the aisle aren’t concerned with the reality here in New York. If ignorance is bliss…then Albany is the most blissful place in the entire world.”