South Dakota Homeland Security Grants go to Schools

Schools in South Dakota were the big winners when officials handed out the state’s homeland security grants. But while schools do need good security, are homeland security grants the way to do that?

According to an article by Andrea J. Cook in South Dakota’s Rapid City Journal, school districts in three counties received more than $266,000 in funds for security improvements.

“There’s a lot of need for that money and we tried to spread it around to the various disciplines,” Pam Buck, Homeland Security regional grants coordinator, told Cook. Buck added that schools were definitely a priority after a rash of school shootings across the nation.

Cook says the area schools “succeeded in their plan to add keyless entries to their schools. The schools were awarded $110,721. With keyless entries, access to a building is gained using an electronically programmed card-key, or key-fob. A computer system allows schools to limit the validity of a key,” Cook says.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/04/14/news/local/news06.txt