CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — It’s been about a year and a half since West Virginia lawmakers passed a bill that changed how motorists are charged when passing stopped school buses, and officials feel those changes are keeping students safer.
Ken Winkie, director of safety and discipline for Harrison County Schools, said the new law has also led school systems to take measures in making its facilities more secure.
“We’ve implemented various things,” Winkie said. “What we’re working on right now is secure entrances at our schools, meaning using existing space instead of building an addition that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We just finished [Washington Irving Middle School],” he said. “We have some electronic issues to work through, but after that it will be fully functional.”
Similar systems will be installed at Salem and Wilsonburg elementary schools.
Winkie said many schools are also receiving upgraded camera systems.
“There’s been a transition, and last year was a hard year with that transition adding new cameras and fixing old cameras,” Winkie said. “We’re trying to go to IT cameras — digital.”
Winkie said the previous analog videos were poor quality with limited zoom capabilities to identify those in the videos.
Other safety methods include reinforced school windows and code red keys.
“Every teacher can lock their doors from inside the classroom,” Winkie said. “They don’t have to go outside of the classroom into the hallway, maybe in harm’s way, to lock that door.”
School systems hope to never have to put those measures into use, but drills are done regularly to assure proper steps would be taken if need be. The state of West Virginia mandates specific drills for all of its schools, but Winkie said that Harrison County takes extra precaution.
“In addition to that, what I do in our county here, I work with 911, law enforcement, the fire department and we do unannounced drills,” he said.
Winkie said that unannounced drills help to better test the systems in place, as opposed to staff knowing when the drills are held.
“I come unannounced. I don’t tell anybody that we’re going to be doing it,” he said. “The only people who know are 911, law enforcement and the fire department, and we’re able to give them a fair assessment of what’s happening on a daily basis. If there’s doors propped open, that’s a huge no-no, or if you’re just getting buzzed in.”
Though changes and upgrades are being made school by school, Winkie said his goal is to get all of the county’s facilities to equal measures of safety.
“Obviously there’s money involved in that, but I’ve really received tremendous support from the superintendent and our board with these things,” he said. “It’s a juggle with that though because we’re there for the education of the kids, and this is a secondary item. But they are cognizant of it, and they do work with me on that.”
Legislation has worked to keep students safe on the commute to and from school.
Former Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed legislation March 2016 that placed liability on the registered owner of a vehicle that violates traffic laws by passing a stopped school bus.
“Law enforcement is taxed on many different fronts, and I know there was some issue with the bus drivers having to get information to them to try to get the criminal complaint done to be sent out for a warrant or a ticket,” Winkie said. “The legislature worked on that and gave bus drivers that ability, and now we have more eyes out there.”
Winkie said that the school system worked with Harrison County Sheriff’s Department following the law’s passing of how to gather the information for a criminal complaint.
“Our buses, they have new equipment where if those gates are out and a car passes it, the bus automatically takes the picture,” he said. “It takes a still shot of the vehicle, and the way this law is written, it doesn’t make a difference if they can identify the driver or not; it’s the vehicle.”
Of course, motorists passing stopped buses is not the only threat to protecting students on their way to school. Winkie said distracted driving is becoming more of an issue.
“You can see the statistics on that keep on going up,” he said. “I think as the new automobiles keep on rolling out that everything’s interconnected, you won’t have to look down, but they’re even saying that when you’re on the phone talking about an issue, you’re still distracted from what you’re really supposed to be doing, and that’s driving the vehicle.”
Harrison County Sheriff’s Department and municipal police departments have worked to keep incidents at bay, Winkie said.
“All the chiefs and the sheriffs work together on that with the patrols out there, especially the first couple weeks of school, and the school system really appreciates that,” he said. “They’re out there in numbers going over the bus stops and things like that, following behind buses, making sure they don’t see any violations or keep to them down because of their presence.”