Lawmakers down second school safety bill on narrowest of votes

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Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

PIERRE – A bill in the South Dakota Senate that established minimum security requirements in state schools fell short by one vote Wednesday, even though more senators voted for the bill than against.

Senate Bill 103 had 16 votes in favor to 15 against. But because it failed to garner a majority of elected senators – currently 34 – it lost under Senate rules. Three senators were excused from Wednesday’s vote.

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The outcome represented a narrow loss for Sen. Brent Hoffman, the Hartford Republican and sponsor. SB 103 was the second of Hoffman’s school security bills to die in the Legislature this year. An earlier bill would have required schools to have an armed person in every school – either a school resource officer or a school employee trained through the state’s sentinel program. That bill died in the starting days of the session.

Hoffman’s scaled back version called for school doors to be locked and monitored by a surveillance camera during the hours students were present. In the event a door couldn’t be locked, it had to be physically monitored by a school employee.

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