Legislative Republicans are giving their take on how they see school security being handled across the state. Party leaders say the objective of House Bill ten-eighty-seven is to allow school districts the opportunity to draft their own security measures and promote school safety.
Senate Majority Leader Russell Olson says the decision on how to protect students and staff might best be made locally.
“It’s a reasonable approach to give local folks that option. You hear often here local control and this is clearly an example of that. It allows each school district – they’re not required to do anything – but it gives them the flexibility to work with local law enforcement in developing a program that will achieve the objective of keeping children and staff safe in schools,” says Olson.
Democrats say that school security should be addressed on a case-by-case basis. They add that school security measures in rural schools could differ from that of schools in South Dakota’s larger cities.