(WHTM) -- The school shooting in Nashville might have you wondering if children are safe in Pennsylvania schools. The answer, experts say, is not safe enough.
Lots of possible solutions and funding are out there for schools, but there’s a reluctance to embrace them.
Nashville is just the latest dot on the United States map marking shots fired in a school and innocent lives lost.
The latest dot. But not the last.
"Part of the unfortunate new reality, I think," said Senator Mike Regan (R-York County).
Senator Regan is a former United States Marshall whose first bill tried to put armed officers in every school ten years ago. Now, his fight continues, but so does resistance.
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"School superintendents sometimes want to believe they have all the answers to all the questions when clearly they do not. They're not security experts," Regan added. "You know, we've heard all kinds of excuses. But the bottom line is that the only way, typically, you stop a bad guy with a gun is to have a good guy with a gun."
But some say there are other ways.
Alan Pugh's AMP Global Security, based in Luzerne County, uses security cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to make school buildings safer by making reaction times faster.
"So if we can see someone outside of the facility with a gun, we can already send that information to law enforcement before the first shots are fired. And that's the big thing here. Time saves lives. Response saves lives," Pugh said.
This year's state budget is paying AMP to pilot the technology in two Pennsylvania schools. Pugh would like to do more but, like Regan, senses reluctance from schools.
"I don't know if it's because of funds or it's just because they don't think it's going to happen here. And that's the biggest mistake people can make," Pugh added.
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Regan says high-tech security like AMP is piloting is on his wish list for schools, but armed and trained officers are on his must-do list, even if some parents and school boards think it creates a menacing look to campuses.
"Those days are gone and you need to wrap your head around it," Regan said.
The next dot on the map could be your hometown.
There is $100 million in this year's budget to make school buildings safer and $100 million more for mental health in schools.
With 500 school districts, Regan notes, they could always use more funding.
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