The authorities were quick to praise the school resource officer at Great Mills High, Deputy Blaine Gaskill, who they said responded almost immediately to the gunman and fired his weapon. There are few statistics on the effectiveness of school resource officers, although the Alabama-based National Association of School Resource Officers pointed to other instances in which it credited the presence of the officers for saving lives. There had been new discussions about school safety. As states around the country considered new gun control and school safety measures in recent weeks, Mr. Hogan proposed putting $125 million into school protection and $50 million to pay for school resource officers. “It’s outrageous to me that we haven’t taken action yet on something so important as school safety,” Mr. Hogan said.

Source: New York Times March 20, 2018 14:27 UTC