The Smithtown Board of Education has unanimously approved armed security guards. These guards, armed with deadly weapons, will cost the district $800,000. That’s approximately 8.5x the cost of the district’s mental health initiative with Northwell Health that has been widely attacked by the far-right group Save Smithtown Schools. It has been proven study-by-study that armed guards do not work as intended. In 2021, researchers at the University at Albany and the RAND Corp. found school resource officers “do not prevent school shootings or gun-related incidents”. Another study examined all U.S. shootings at K-12 schools from 1980-2019. They found that of 133 incidents, 1 in 4 had an armed guard on the scene. Not only did the presence of the armed guards not correlate with fewer injuries, but the death rate was 2.83 times greater in school shootings with armed guards. Please sign this petition to demand the removal of these armed guards, for the safety of the communities children.