RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO) — Schools everywhere are shaken up after hearing the news of an armed person entering an elementary school in Nashville killing three children and three adults.

Western South Dakota is more than a thousand miles from Nashville’s Covenant School.
Dispite that distance, Monday’s shooting was still heartbreaking.

“I think you don’t want to think that it could ever happen in your school or your district but the reality is that in our country it happens. And it happens frequently enough that we have to prepare for it on a regular basis, which is really really sad,” Katy Urban, Douglas School District, said.

“Obviously our main priority is the safety of kids while they are in our buildings. So with this happening, we definitely take a stronger look at our safety protocols so that we can do everything we can to make sure our students know how to be safe if they are ever put in that situation,” Bobbi Schaefbauer, Rapid City Schools, said.

“Our kids and our staff deserve to feel safe in school and we need people and advocates that are looking at this issue and really examining what we need to do to prevent this from happening in another community in our country,” Urban said.

By practicing safety protocols, having school resource officers in buildings, and by being aware, the schools hope to prevent that tragedy from coming to western South Dakota.

“As a district, our heart goes out to the affected. It’s never an easy situation, it’s scary. We can only hope our students are never in that situation,” Schaefbauer said.

“We will continue to do whatever we can to keep safe and in the meantime, we are just really sad that this is a reality in America,” Urban said.

The Rapid City School District just went through a safety assessment last month.