(Continued from page 16)

and others.
• Schools now may appear to be easy targets to those planning mass shootings, especially smaller school districts that have no police officers stationed in their buildings, Craig said. Someone planning an attack on a school might be deterred if it's known that armed people are inside, he said.
• Rep. Betty Olson, R-Prairie City, said she has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but cannot take a gun into a school when she works as a substitute teacher.
• "I couldn't protect the kids in the class or myself if we had one of those lunatics like Connecticut come in and start shooting up the place," Olson said.
• Orson Ward, a member of the Lead-Deadwood School Board, said his long career in the U.S. Army and South Dakota Army National Guard has taught him that people need a lot of training and discipline to use a gun effectively against an attacker. An armed teacher or administrator could accidentally shoot students, he said.
• "It is not easy to shoot another human being," Ward said.
• Sandy Arseneault, president of the South Dakota Education Association, the state's main union for teachers, said she owns guns but doesn't want them in schools. She said a student who planned to carry out a school shooting when she was a teacher in Custer made a hit list that included her and others. An armed guard brought into the school at the time made students and teachers nervous, Arseneault said.
• The student was caught before he could do anything.
• Dianna Miller, lobbyist for the Large School Group, which represents most of the state's largest school districts, said schools need to provide counseling and mental health services and make efforts to prevent bullying.
• "I'm here to tell you our schools are safe and will continue to be safe," Miller said. "We can't make a school an armed fortress."
• But Sen. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City, a former police chief, said rural school districts located far from a law enforcement agency should have the option of arming teachers.
• "A good guy with a firearm in the schools could improve safety in these situations," Tieszen said.
•