Massachusetts College Of Art And Design (Massart) Trustees Voted To Preserve A Gun-free Environment By Keeping Police Officers Unarmed On Campus.
The vote came last week and the drew the ire of MassArt police Sgt. Matt Hurley, who said, “The MassArt community has been done a disservice as it has presented a false sense of security.”
The Boston Herald quoted Hurley, who suggested a police force that is unarmed is a police force without the power to protect students. He said, “Parents have an expectation that when they send their child off to school at MassArt, that since there is a police department there, they have nothing to worry about. This is just wrong.”
Hurley pointed out that while officers are denied guns, they are all outfitted with a Kevlar vest. In other words, while officers cannot shoot at would-be school attackers they are dressed in a fashion that anticipates an attack.
But MassArt president David Nelson argued that changing school policy to arm officers is “unnecessary.” Nelson said, “To be clear, our currently policy is that officers remain unarmed … and that remains my position today.”- READ MORE