MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Five new School Safety Officers have now deployed to patrol in and around elementary schools in Monongalia County.
Monongalia County Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell said a combination of SSOs and School Resource Officers (SROs) work in the middle and high schools in the district but there has not consistent coverage at elementary schools in the county.
Unlike a school resource officer, an SSO has one purpose: to stop an incident involving deadly force.
“We’ve heard from our parents and staff members that they would like to have this presence in our elementary schools, so we responded to that,” Campbell said.
Monongalia County Sheriff Todd Forbes said the five officers added all are retired law enforcement or military, some with many years of service in the county giving them a deep background for reference when evaluating security. Many of the officers already have relationships with area law enforcement and school officials as well.
“We have all retired law enforcement personnel at this point and I think most of them have a military background as well,” Forbes said. “They all did an exemplary job as law enforcement officers.”
The plan also addresses staffing shortages that at times has resulted in SROs having to leave buildings creating a gap in security. This plan provides retired officers with employment and allows deputies assigned to road patrols to maintain a safe environment in schools and the communities in the county.
“This allows us to still have deputies on the road which is our priority,” Forbes said. ” I realize our priorities are inline in a lot of ways, but a little bit different in some regards in that the school is Dr. Campbell’s responsibility and the rest of the community is ours so it fills both needs.
Now, Campbell won’t have to deal with the hasty exit of an officer on-duty in one of the school buildings in the county.
“We were seeing it as well with our resource officers,” Campbell said. “They were getting pulled out occasionally of our buildings because our sheriff’s department doesn’t have enough deputies and our police department has vacancies.”
The extended holiday break due to weather delayed their introduction to the students but it did create an opportunity for the officers to get to know the buildings. Officers have been able to get inside the buildings to create emergency action plans and security assessments that will be put into play if the situation would ever warrant.
“That’s going to give these guys an opportunity to go around and devise a safety plan, get more familiar with their surroundings and really have a good plan moving forward if an incident would arise, God forbid.”