City officials are calling for stepped up security in Middletown after more than a dozen bomb threats to the district in the last nine months.

"They are traumatized, hiding under desks, cuddling in the closet, afraid to go to school," says Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano.

DeStefano wants the school board to immediately hire four school resource officers. He says he knows it won't stop the so-called swatting incidents, but feels it will make kids feel more comfortable knowing that an officer will be there.

Superintendent Kevin Eastwood says that the district does not have the money for the estimated $300,000 price tag.

The mayor has said that the district has the funds to do it now without impacting teachers. He has gone to Albany to ask that the state make the funds exempt from the property tax cap, but says even if it's not, they have an "obligation to make kids feel safe and secure in their own school."

News 12 reached out to the superintendent, but has not heard back.