Shortly after the Sandy Hook massacre, Sheriff Bill Rasco decided it was time to take action. 

 "I thought we had to do something, it was time to do something not that it would happen in our county, but it possibly could. So you cannot take a chance on something happening and not doing anything. It's my responsibility to do it. And I felt that that's what I was going to do, so I did it."

Without making big announcements and working with other law enforcement agencies, they doubled the number of school resource officers, putting them at schools that did not have them.

"These kids cannot get an education if they are coming to school scared somebody is going to come in there and harm them in any way. I am a grandfather and I have grandchildren in Desoto County Schools. I am going to do everything to protect the kids," Sheriff Rasco said.

Rasco says the increased presence at th3 schools is being funded by the Sheriff Department's overtime budget.

"We have even had officers volunteer their time to come in here and do it at no cost, but we can't do that because of the liability insurance wise, and all that won't allow us to do it."

There is a Sheriff's office car prominently out front of most of the county schools these days, those not covered by the Sheriff's Department are covered by school resource officers from local P.D.'s and vice versa. As for how many officers are where, and the details of the Sheriff's plan to protect the kids, that's not all being made public for security reasons.

"You know being a grandfather to a child or children who are going to public schools, it's my responsibility to all the grandparents and to all the parents out there in the county to make sure the children are safe." Rasco said.