ROCHESTER N.Y. – The New York State Sheriff’s' Association this week called on the state legislature and governor to fund at least one armed school resource officer at every grade school and high school for the next fiscal year, starting April 1.

Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts, the president of the state sheriff's association, said in a statement:

“This will be an expensive undertaking, but we owe it to our children and their parents to provide a safe place for education to take place...Surely we can also find the money to protect our most defenseless people – the children we send off to school each day."

Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter responded to the proposal by saying “I champion the idea of the state association when they made the statement that, but I still believe it’s up to each individual school district and each individual community what they want for their law enforcement.”

The safety of children is always top of mind and a topic of discussion following the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead, 14 of them students.

Michael Naven of Irondequoit wants to see armed guards in each school.

“I think it’s a great idea,” he says. “I think it’s long overdue, actually. It takes a terrible tragedy to make people realize the truth. You can’t protect children in gun free zones.”

Many Monroe County districts already have certified part and full-time school resource officers. Neither West nor East districts in Irondequoit have them.

“Not an advocate of too much in the way of guards and certainly not armed guards in schools unless it can be truly shown that it makes a difference and I don’t think it has been shown,” said Chris Bartleson, who grew up in the area visiting family in Irondequoit.

The Monroe County Sheriff's Office currently provides two school resource officers at Wheatland Chili Central and one at BOCES #1 in Fairport, as well as DARE deputies in several area schools.

Irondequoit Police Chief Richard Tantalo says his officers provide support and an assortment of activities at schools throughout the school year.

Individual schools having a resource officer is based on multiple factors for districts to consider, according to Sheriff Baxter.

“Each individual one is based on budgets, based on budget constraints and what the school district wants, whether they desire a police officer in their school or not,” said Baxter.