School to review policies after shooting

Officials from the Custer School District, City of Custer and Custer County will meet Jan. 18 to review and discuss the school district’s security policy in the wake of the mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., that left 26 dead, including 20 children.

Custer School District superintendent Scott Lepke said he, Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler, county emergency management director Mike Carter and Custer mayor Gary Lipp will all attend the meeting to discuss current policies and procedures, as well as possibly formulate new ideas to better secure the buildings.

“It always saddens me that people will come into a school and take advantage of our children,” Lepke said of the Newtown shootings. “You can’t help but hurt for the families and the school district.”

“I have grandkids that age (of the Newtown victims),” Wheeler said. “I can’t even process what they are going through, let alone if it happened to me. How do you deal with it? That was a terrible tragedy.”