After the attack on Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the debate on school security has been reopened on a national stage.

Since that day, there have been a sudden spike in threats to schools, as well: including schools in Greene County.

John Menhart, superintendent of the Carmichaels school district, said the district has made adjustments to its security to better protect its students.

“In the past, we had a security director. When our current person came on board, we made him a school police officer because of training and background. He has a little more authority with this title,” said Menhart. “He was sworn in by a judge, and naturally he carries a weapon. He has arresting powers and things of that nature.”

Like many school districts, Carmichaels is constantly looking for ways to improve the safety of its students and staff on each campus. But, according to Menhart, nothing is guaranteed anymore.

“We have a plan in place,” said Menhart. “Everyone knows what that plan is, every situation. [I] pray that it never happens here or anywhere again. Every situation is different, and you never know how human beings are going to react in the face of adversity, but with that being said, our people are well prepared.”

Rich Pekar, superintendent at Southeastern Greene School District, said his school district has an armed officer. More specifically, there is an armed officer at each school building whenever school is in session.

“We do have an emergency operations plan that is reviewed at the beginning of each year,” said Pekar. “It is also reviewed during our Act 80 Day in October. Our school police officer also reviews the plan at the beginning of each year and Act 80 day trainings with our faculty and staff. We also practice multiple drills to make sure that both our students and faculty and staff are prepared.”

With the sudden spike in threats among local schools, Pennsylvania State Police have become more involved in making sure schools are safe, according to Ryan Tarkowski, a communications director with Pennsylvania State Police.

“State wide, troopers are making an effort to be more of a presence at local schools. It’s nothing that is based on any specific threat,” Tarkowski said. “It’s just more of a reminder to our troopers, and it’s something they’re doing anyway, when they weren’t on a call or otherwise engaged. Just to stop by and be a visual presence, talk to students, talk to faculty, make sure everything looks right…it’s a blanket prevention tool.”

A national debate has been sparked on the topic of whether or not teachers should be armed in order to better protect their students. Menhart said he has a large amount of concerns for what could be dangerous consequences.

“Right now, we are against [arming teachers],” said Menhart. “I don’t believe in that. You may have some key personnel within the school that you may want to [have] complete the act 235 training, which allows them to carry a gun during the school day, but there are a lot of questions that would have to be answered before I would ever support anything like that. Our teachers are trained, right now, to get as many students as they can to safety.”

Both schools and state police are working to improve the security within schools and better educate students and teachers on how to both prevent and react to potentially dangerous situations within a school setting.

“One thing that Pennsylvania State Police does is every troupe for every area in the state has a community service officer,” said Tarkowski “…What CSOs do is they go into schools and other organizations like churches and they give presentations on any number of things related to safety and crime prevention.”

Menhart said schools and law enforcement constantly cooperate.

“We have a great relationship with our local police, our township police department,” said Menhart. “They’re very visible here, they are within minutes of responding and I can’t say enough about what they do to make us feel safe.”