Protecting Our Kids: Real School Safety Requires Action, Not Politics
By Congressman Anthony D’Esposito
With back-to-school season just weeks away, parents across Long Island are preparing their children for another academic year. New backpacks, sharpened pencils, and fresh notebooks are on everyone’s checklist. But as a former NYPD detective, Congressman, and lifelong advocate for public safety, I know there’s one thing more important than any supply list: ensuring our kids are safe the moment they walk through those school doors.
School safety isn’t a talking point. It’s a responsibility. And it requires real investment, strong collaboration between law enforcement and educators, and the courage to confront failed progressive policies that put politics ahead of children’s well-being.
Across Nassau County and beyond, parents want the same basic promise: that when they drop their kids off at school, they’ll come home safe. Achieving that promise starts with investing in state-of-the-art security infrastructure—not just reacting after tragedy strikes. That means ensuring every school has secure entryways, monitored surveillance systems, and trained personnel ready to respond at a moment’s notice. It means adopting layered security protocols—from access control systems to panic alarms—so our schools aren’t soft targets. These upgrades aren’t optional luxuries; they are essential safeguards. And they must be funded accordingly. While Albany wastes billions on illegal migrants and green energy boondoggles like offshore wind scams and lithium battery firetraps, our children’s safety deserves to be priority number one.
Long Island is fortunate to have some of the best-trained law enforcement professionals in the nation. The Nassau County Police Department, under the leadership of Commissioner Patrick Ryder, has been a national model in school safety initiatives. He has fostered partnerships with superintendents and school boards, demanding his precinct commanders to build collaborative strategies that balance security with the educational environment. With the support and funding from County Executive Blakeman, these include proactive threat assessments, regular active-shooter drills, and assigning dedicated school resource officers who serve as trusted partners for students and faculty alike.
In addition to the incredible work of the Nassau County Police Department, District Attorney Anne Donnelly has been a tireless advocate for protecting our schools and children. Her office has prioritized keeping predators, drug dealers, and violent offenders away from our communities and ensuring schools remain safe environments for students and educators alike. Through innovative programs that target youth safety, anti-bullying initiatives, and close coordination with school districts and law enforcement, DA Donnelly has built a model of proactive prevention. Her commitment to holding dangerous individuals accountable—while working together with educators and parents—has made Nassau County a safer place for families.
This collaboration works. It’s a blueprint other districts should follow. But maintaining this success requires support—and that means giving law enforcement the resources, technology, and authority they need, free from political interference.
But protecting our children isn’t just about securing buildings—it’s also about defending their future against progressive policies that put ideology ahead of common sense. We’ve seen how Albany and Washington push dangerous social experiments into our schools. From eliminating gender distinctions in sports to teaching divisive and inappropriate content in classrooms, radical activists are undermining parental rights and weakening the standards that keep students safe and focused on learning.
One clear example? Boys competing in girls’ sports. It’s unfair. It’s unsafe. And it robs young women of hard-earned opportunities. Yet when given the chance to protect girls and preserve fairness, Laura Gillen voted NO. She chose politics over protecting our kids, and parents across Long Island deserve to know it.
School safety must include protecting our kids physically, emotionally, and academically—and that means standing up against woke policies that put progressive agendas ahead of our children’s well-being.
Parents, not bureaucrats, should make decisions about their children’s education and safety. That includes, transparency in curriculum—no backroom mandates—families deserve a say. We must restore fairness in sports—protecting girls’ athletics from unsafe, politically driven policies. And we must stand strong in upholding parental rights—respecting families’ values and voices at every level. Protecting our children means giving parents real power again, not surrendering it to Albany’s radical policies.
As we send our kids back to school, our priorities must be clear:
• Invest in modern security infrastructure that keeps schools safe.
• Expand law enforcement partnerships and school resource officer programs.
• Push back on progressive social experiments that undermine fairness and safety.
• Protect parental rights and transparency in education.
This isn’t about politics—it’s about priorities. And mine are simple: safe kids, strong schools, and empowered parents.
Your children and the children we love deserve more than thoughts and promises—they deserve action. As someone who’s worn the badge, who’s investigated shootings, who’s sat with families torn apart by violence, I will never stop fighting to keep our kids safe, both inside the classroom and beyond it.
Nassau County has set the standard, thanks to the incredible work of the NCPD and our first responders. But we need Albany and Washington to follow that lead, not undermine it with reckless mandates and failed progressive experiments.
School safety must always come first. Our children—and their futures—depend on it.
See you around town. Stay safe. I am always here for you. n
Congressman Anthony D’Esposito was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as Inspector General of the Department of Labor. Previously, he served in Congress, representing New York’s 4th Congressional District. Anthony served as a Councilman in the Town of Hempstead after retiring from the NYPD as a highly decorated Detective. He also served as Chief of the Island Park Fire Department and helped lead the all-volunteer organization’s response to Super-Storm Sandy. The Congressman appears frequently on Fox News, Newsmax, ABC National News, and 77 WABC Sid and Friends in the Morning. To contact, email [email protected].
