Rapid City school’s superintendent says gun incident reinforces need for resource officers

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - Wednesday, a student was found with a gun at Rapid City Alternative Academy. The school resource officer discovered the gun only after an investigation led to it, not precautionary measures.

At the alternative school, there is no weapon detection equipment. Rapid City Area Schools hired a school safety manager, have school resource officers, and say they applied for a school safety grant. RCAS CEO/Superintendent Nicole Swigart, says more safety measures in Rapid City schools were prompted by a national trend, not necessarily a local trend in school violence.

“[Wednesday] is a perfect example. An SRO (School Resource Officer) is the one who made the call, who did the body search and found the weapon,” said Swigart.

SROs have long been under scrutiny, some saying they create a school-to-prison pipeline.

“I’ve had the research thrown at me that SROs shouldn’t be in schools. There’s definitely people in our community that feel strongly about that. I have said to them, we’re going to have to agree to disagree,” said Swigart.

She says if RCAS receives the $500,000 grant it will be used to add weapon detection equipment to five schools. She would not confirm what schools exactly but said all three high schools and two middle schools.

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