In the wake if this week's deadly mass shooting in Florida, a local sheriff is calling for what he calls a proactive approach to school safety. Our Matt Hunter explains from Washington County.

FORT EDWARD, N.Y. – After a decades-long career in law enforcement, Washington County Sheriff Jeff Murphy believes preparations like active shooter training drills, while essential, only go so far in situations like Wednesday's mass shooting in Florida that left 17 dead.

"I think this event should be a wake-up call for everybody," Murphy said Friday morning. "We can do all that planning, but when these events happen, by the time law enforcement gets there in a lot of cases, the event is over and the shooter has taken his own life or left the scene."

Calling it a "proactive approach to safety," Murphy sent a letter to the leaders of all of the county's school districts on Thursday, advocating for having a trained officer stationed at each school full-time.

"If we had a presence already there, it's a step in the right direction,” the sheriff said. “It's not the answer, I don't think anybody knows what the answer is but it's a step towards an answer."

"I definitely agree with Sheriff Murphy,” Hudson Falls High School Principal Jim Bennefield said. “We definitely need it. It is definitely nice to have that presence in the school."

Four years ago, Bennefield says an office was set aside at the school for a member of the village's police department. He says a sergeant typically occupies it a few days a week.

"I think there is definitely a comfort level there for a lot of our kids to know there is someone there who knows what to do in those situations," Bennefield said.

Full- and part-time D.A.R.E. and resource officers used to be commonplace in New York schools until state and federal funding was cut. At next week’s State Sheriff’s Association conference, Murphy says he will urge his fellow members to ask lawmakers to bring the money back.

"Kids are getting killed,” Murphy said. “We can't just keep going on and saying that we'll try to enhance our response. That's not the answer.”