SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- The Sioux Falls School District has doubled-down on thinking about school security since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
"Right now has us in conversation as deep as we've been since I've been here, which is three years now." Schools Superintendant Dr. Brian Maher tells Kelo.com News.
Dr. Maher says the school district has never stopped talking about school security but the Florida rampage has given the discussions a "new urgency."
Maher says he would "love" to have more school resource police officers in the schools, but he knows there is not a limitless supply of money at the police department or, for that matter, in the school district. But that conversation continues.
Maher would be willing to have a conversation about armed sentinels in the schools, but he would take a lot of convincing.
"I'd need to know how does providing more guns make our schools safer. If the answer is that it does because: X, Y, Z, then I'm all for it." South Dakota allows armed sentinel programs, but only two school districts in the state have moved forward with the program.
Maher says the school district has a "three-legged stool" for school security: planning, perimeter security, and prevention. Perimeter security is keeping people out of buildings who have no business being in them.
"I think that is an area we do very well." says Maher, but it's not perfect and there is always room for improvement.
The conversation continues.