MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Â The school year in Monongalia County will start with a School Safety Officer available for all buildings in the county. The program is a partnership between the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department, the Monongalia County Board of Education and the county commission.
Sheriff Todd Forbes said the plan was made possible through cooperation within the county and a change in state law. The state legislature passed House Bill 2164 that now allows public, private and charter schools to hire retired law enforcement officers as SSOs. The officers can carry weapons but have no authority to arrest or detain suspects.
“Everybody has put their best foot forward to make this happen,” Forbes said Monday on WAJR’S “Talk of the Town.” “I’m not sure other counties in this state or in this region are able to say there will be an SSO in every school every day this school year, and we’re really proud of that.”
Classes begin Tuesday in Monongalia County.
The officers hired in Monongalia County are a mix of state, local and retired federal police officers. The schools cover the cost of equipment and insurance while they are trained by the sheriff’s department for their narrow mission—stopping an active shooter.
“These are all SSOs,” Forbes said. “These are folks that are there to monitor and patrol around the schools to make sure there are no safety issues and to make sure no one is coming to do harm to the kids or staff in the schools.”
Forbes said they spent a week recently training the SSOs on what is expected of them and the different missions of the School Resource Officer (SRO). An SRO is typically employed by a law enforcement agency, has full police powers and has a closer relationship with the school administrative staff.
“Over the summer we spent a considerable amount of time making sure these guys are trained in the things we want them to do and be aware, alert, and know exactly what their roles are,” Forbes said.
Forbes said their collection of officers will wear khaki pants with polo shirts, and they will be armed. The SSOs will not operate vehicles provided by the sheriff’s department or the school system.
“Some schools will have someone for the whole eight hours, and some will split officers for a few at a time,” Forbes said. “But there’s going to be someone at every school every day, and we anticipate that to be the case for the entire school year.”
The SSOs will have an over watch status while on duty. Forbes said the officers will get directly involved in the discipline process at any level, but they also won’t let disruptions or things like fights continue. It’s the hope the officers can develop relationships with the students that could result in increased safety for the students and staff.
“We want to have interactions with the kids,” Forbes said. “We want our guys to have good relations with the kids; therefore, we don’t want to be the disciplinarians if we don’t have to be, but they stand idly by and watch a fight happen, but they aren’t going to intervene unless they have to.”