[Don Lemon, Cnn Anchor:] Students from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, will return to class tomorrow. Their new school in the nearby town of Monroe has been renamed Sandy Hook. School officials discussed the transition about an hour ago.
[Janet Robinson, Newtown, Connecticut School Superintendent:] The teachers have met this morning. The parents of some of the children have been walking through and at other times we have an open house as they walk through today. The children are coming in. They're so excited to see their teachers and the students coming in complete a circle.
[Lemon:] The new Sandy Hook School will have a larger staff and parents are welcome to visit tomorrow. The school has been refurbished with desks, book cases, and other furniture in hopes of making the students more comfortable, returning to class after the tragic shooting just last month. Gun control is a huge topic after the Newtown shooting. The number of FBI background checks for gun purchases last month set a record 2.8 million background checks. Today, armed police officers watched over students returning to school in Marlboro, New Jersey. The armed cops are controversial and, remember, the NRA wants armed officers in every school across the nation. Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik, he pushed to add the armed officers in his schools and in his town. He joins us now by phone. Mayor Hornik, how much money does it take to pay for armed guards at every school in Marlborough? Who pays for it?
[Mayor Jonathan Hornik , Marlboro, New Jersey:] That will be coming out of the Board of Education's budget, Don. The reason why we felt it was necessary to put our police officers these aren't armed guards hired from third parties. This is from our police department, who are very familiar with the schools, is in order to bring a calmness to the community until we could fully assess the security situation based on what we're going to learn from Newtown, Connecticut.
[Lemon:] So, Mayor, where are the armed officers placed in the school?
[Hornik:] Well, for security reasons we can't tell you exactly where they're located. But we have nine public schools, and our police officers who are all emergency response team trained. Meaning they're the first to show up if there is an active shooter scenario in our school system, will be in our schools for the next 90 days at least until we can make a determination of security protocol and what needs to be changed.
[Lemon:] How does one armed officer cover an entire school?
[Hornik:] Well, these police officers are trained in order to deal with situations such as active evolving shooter scenarios. The school has other security measures which are in place, which I'm not at liberty to speak about. But having a police officer with a side arm in the school gives a level of safety, protection, comfort to our students and our community.
[Lemon:] You say, Mayor, you supported arm guards in school before Newtown. What obstacles did you face before Newtown to putting armed guards in schools?
[Hornik:] No, not before Newtown, before the NRA came out with its recommendation. What happened in Newtown, Don, is that the unfortunate events up there changed school security. And I think every elected official in the country has to take a careful look about their school system, how security is put into place. You have a choice right now. You can do something or you can do nothing and hope it doesn't happen in your school district. We made a collective decision together with the Board of Education and the police department that we had to do something now as we wait for law enforcement report out of Newtown in order to address the security failing of that school. And that's what we're waiting for. During that waiting period, we're more comfortable having our able police force in our schools than not in our schools. Now, Marlboro Township has always had police officers in our schools, so this isn't something so new to our children that they should be concerned about.
[Lemon:] Mayor Jonathan Hornik, thank you.
[Hornik:] Thank you very much, Don.
[Lemon:] The fallout continues from the Jerry Sandusky case. The NCAA imposed stiff sanctions and a $60 million fine against Penn State University. Now, Pennsylvania's governor is taking the NCAA to court.