School Safety Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Student Discipline, Financial Literacy Discussed At State Board Of Education Meeting

For the past several years, educators have identified worsening classroom behavior and discipline as key issues in state school systems.

For the past several years, educators have identified worsening classroom behavior and discipline as key issues in state school systems. A recent Senate bill aimed to address discipline in elementary grades but failed to pass the House of Delegates during the recent regular legislative session.

Jim Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Board Association, told the state Board of Education Tuesday the bill was focused on punishment and does not deal with typical discipline matters.

“Having served as an elementary principal and a school district superintendent, I can attest this punitive approach fails to address the underlying issues and provide these students with the supports they need to succeed,” he said.

Brown said elementary schools are ill-equipped to manage, let alone address, the mental health issues students are dealing with and that schools should “not attack the child, but attack the behavior.”

“Only a small percentage of school districts in our state have an established alternative learning environment for elementary age students,” he said. “We need to acknowledge the reality of mental health challenges faced by our school-aged children, and the varying degrees of crisis they experience. It is imperative that we conduct an honest review of the supports available across our state, from urban communities to the most rural settings. To have that effectively address this pressing issue.”

Brown finished his statement by calling for the establishment of a statewide task force that brings together educators, mental health professionals, community leaders, parents, and policymakers to develop a holistic strategy to tackle the mental health crisis in schools.

His sentiments were echoed by others addressing the board, including West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee, as well as West Virginia Professional Educators Executive Director David Gladkosky. They discussed the possibility the bill could be brought back up in a proposed special session this month or in May.

Financial Literacy

Several West Virginia Board of Education policies were placed on public comment during the April meeting, including Policy 2520.4, relating to West Virginia College and Career Readiness Standards for Social Studies. The proposed changes would separate personal finance, which is currently taught as part of required civics courses, out to its own standalone requirement and course

Board member Debra Sullivan questioned the wisdom of splitting the two subjects. Joey Wiseman, director of West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) Office of Student Enrichment, said the intent of the personal finance was always to have it be a separate course, and doing so allows educators and students to better focus on each subject.

“Now those standards look the same as a personal finance [course] they’re teaching in CTE (career and technical education), it’s the same all the way across,” Wiseman said. “It’s a very rigorous set of standards.“

He also pointed out that personal finance will not become a required credit for another two years, giving teachers and schools time to fit the new course into schedules.

WVDE Regional School Safety Meetings

During last month’s board meeting, the West Virginia Department of Education announced a series of school safety conferences across the state this spring. Dates have now been scheduled for the 2024 Regional School Safety meetings. The meetings will bring together county and school administrators as well as school safety personnel to share administrative updates that are important during a crisis event. Topics include updates on how to submit plans and code student data. Dates and locations include:

May 7, Embassy Suites, Charleston
May 10, White Palace at Wheeling Park
May 13, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
May 16, West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (WVSDB)

School Safety Conferences Planned Across W.Va. For Spring

The West Virginia Department of Education plans to hold school safety conferences for educators and administrators this spring.

The one-day conferences are still in the planning phases, and dates have not been finalized, but the sessions are scheduled for May in Lewisburg, Romney, Wheeling and Charleston. The regional conferences will bring together county and school administrators, as well as school safety personnel, to share administrative updates that are important during a crisis event.

Topics include updates to how plans are submitted on the state’s system and the coding of student data.

“The purpose of these trainings will be to provide support with the updated crisis response planning tool,” Jonah Adkins, director of the office of pre-K through 12 academic support for the West Virginia Department of Education told the state Board of Education at their monthly meeting March 13.

The FBI will offer insights on local, regional and national issues facing schools and school-age children, and the Office of Homeland Security will brief attendees on its work with communities and schools.

“We do have FBI agents that will be present with us as well, just to share the most current research for effective planning and preparation for emergencies,” Adkins said. “As always, I’m continuing to work with our partners at Homeland Security to refine and strengthen our safety protocols and processes.”

The Department of Education regularly holds regional training conferences, such as to prepare schools for the implementation of the Third Grade Success Act.

Law And Order, Child Care Access And A Women’s Bill Of Rights, This West Virginia Week

On this West Virginia Week, the state legislature had Child Care Advocacy Day, centering on an issue leaders flagged as a top priority at the start of the session. But with the session more than halfway through, action still remains to be seen.

On this West Virginia Week, the state legislature had Child Care Advocacy Day, centering on an issue leaders flagged as a top priority at the start of the session. But with the session more than halfway through, action still remains to be seen.

We also hear about law and order issues facing the state, a bill that narrows definitions of gender, as well as updates on Corridor H and the loss of manufacturing jobs in the Northern Panhandle.

Chris Schulz is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

Teachers Could Carry Guns In W.Va. Classrooms Under Bill

A bill under discussion in the West Virginia House of Delegates would allow teachers to carry guns on school property if they complete a state-mandated training.

Teachers could soon be authorized to carry firearms in West Virginia classrooms, provided that they complete state-mandated training.

The House Judiciary Committee reviewed House Bill 4299 on Wednesday. The bill would create a position in schools known as a school protection officer.

The position would be a secondary role available to any school administrator, support personnel or elementary or secondary school teacher. These individuals would have to complete security and firearm safety training and could then receive authorization to bring a gun to school.

The bill received majority support from committee members, but only after more than an hour of impassioned debate.

Proponents of the bill said it would provide immediate support to school staff when students face the risk of an active shooter.

Under the bill, “we won’t have teachers, as in one instance, laying her body over top of her students,” said Del. Laura Kimble, R-Harrison, who sponsored the bill.

“Instead, she will have something to defend herself,” she said. “That’s why I’m a sponsor of this bill.”

Kimble also said it reaffirmed the state’s concealed carry law, which allows residents over age 21 to carry a firearm in public without a license.

Currently, West Virginia residents including teachers are prohibited from bringing guns onto school property, regardless of whether they have a permit for it.

Under the bill, teachers would be required to keep their firearm within their “personal control while that firearm or device is on school property.”

Critics of the bill, however, expressed doubts that increasing the number of guns in West Virginia schools would reduce gun-related injuries or deaths.

Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, noted that the bill would create a new armed position in addition to other armed roles like prevention resource officers and school resource officers.

He added that another pending bill, House Bill 4851, would allow school security officers to carry firearms on school property.

“So, there’ll be four different types of people with guns in the schools?” he asked.

Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, expressed concern over a potential limit on training for school protection officers in the bill. The text of the bill states that school protection officers must complete “initial instruction and training that shall not exceed 24 hours.”

Also during the meeting, Del. Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, proposed an amendment to the bill that would have required school districts to designate an eligible school employee to serve as a school protection officer.

Counsel and committee members expressed concern that this would contradict the voluntary nature of the position, as established under the bill. Ultimately, Foster withdrew his amendment.

After extensive debate, a majority of committee members voted in favor of the bill, sending it to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass.

Amid Close Call, State Board Of Education Renews Focus On School Safety

Some of the state’s public schools are not in compliance with a safety requirement aimed at facilitating emergency response.

In an illustration of the need for such requirements, a school safety officer told the state Board of Education a possible school shooting in Cabell County last week may have been thwarted by a tip.

Tony Smith, an officer with the school safety unit, told the state Board of Education Wednesday the student had a manifesto and a list of students and administrators he planned to kill.

Jason M. Spears, Cabell County prosecuting attorney, confirmed to West Virginia Public Broadcasting that the incident is under investigation, but declined to comment further due to the ongoing nature of the situation, as well as the involvement of a minor.

“We take threats of school shootings, or violence in schools, very seriously and give them our utmost attention,” Spears said.

Yet, Smith told the board that not all districts are in compliance with a law that requires school safety programs.

“We still have some schools that drag your feet on it,” he said. “But we are telling those folks and superintendents, we got to have those. Those have to be up to date, because in an unfortunate incident that we got a hot call on, this stuff has to be up to date.”

Passed in 2019, House Bill 2541, titled the School Access Safety Act, requires county boards of education to implement school safety programs that include placing room numbers on exterior walls or windows of school buildings, and providing local first responders with up-to-date floor plans.

The plans should be provided by Sept. 1. Smith said some schools his team has reviewed have exterior numbers that do not match the room’s actual number inside the school. Numbering is an issue the board has focused on in recent months.

Jonah Adkins, director of the office of pre-K through 12 academic support for the Department of Education told the board in December that state superintendent Michele Blatt had offered to have the numbering and lettering created and delivered to non-compliant schools free of charge.

Board President Paul Hardesty said he wants the names of all schools that have not completed their crisis reports to be published on the board website immediately.

“Any school that does not have enough or think it’s important to comply with this, shame on you,” he said. “And we will expose you for what you are. And if that’s being mean, I’m just mean. I take this very seriously. That’s why school safety is a standing item on the agenda since I took this presidency.”

Smith said tips like the one that alerted officials to the situation at Cabell Midland come from the state’s See Send app, which allows all community members to notify authorities of concerns or report an incident.

“From Jan. 1 2023 to Jan. 1 2024, we had 537 tips,” Smith said. “Fifty-six of those were immediate threats, we have diverted some serious school violence. Thirty-eight of those involve some type of gun threat.”

Other Business

The board approved a statewide waiver of Policy 2340, section 4.8.a., allowing students attending virtual charter public schools to test remotely for the West Virginia General Summative Assessment in grades 3 – 8.

Board member Debra Sullivan was the sole vote against the approval of the waiver. She asked Vaughn Rhudy, director of assessment for the state Department of Education, why students of virtual charter schools could not go to a local brick and mortar to take their assessments as do students attending virtual programs administered directly by the state or county.

“That would be something that the charter schools would have to arrange with the counties and I think last year, what the virtual public charter schools did, because that provision wasn’t in state law last year,” Rhudy said. “I don’t know if they reached out to county schools to try to do that. I think that we’ve heard reports that some county schools were reluctant to do that to allow those students to come into their schools.”

Sullivan said it appeared that the waiver would give students of the virtual charter schools a privilege not afforded to other students.

“Even though we have all these virtual students across the state, in various iterations, a subset of them is being told that you can stay at home,” she said.

Sullivan also expressed concern that virtual students were being deprived of one of their few opportunities to have an in-person interaction with instructors and other students.

“Having children appear once a year to come in in person and take a test and see somebody’s face to face, it seems to me that that’s an important thing,” she said. “It’s good to have eyes on kids…It shouldn’t be considered a burden to bring kids in to be tested on site. “It’s really an opportunity for teachers to get to know these kids, because they don’t have that. And with everything being virtual, there’s a lack of connection.”

The waiver takes effect this spring and will utilize the Cambium Assessment Remote Testing/Proctoring tool. The school, proctors, parents and students are required to agree to all state requirements. The waiver does not apply to the West Virginia Alternate Summative Assessment, the English Language Proficiency Assessment-21 (ELPA) or the SAT School Day.

Four Counties To Implement Facial Recognition For School Safety

Four counties are integrating facial recognition software into their school security systems.

As part of Gov. Jim Justice’s School Safety Initiative, Marion, Taylor, Doddridge and Putnam Counties have installed, or are in the process of installing, facial recognition software from Rank One Computing.

Jonah Adkins is the director of preK-12 academic support for the Department of Education. He said at Wednesday’s state Board of Education meeting that the software is backward compatible with existing cameras and allows counties to create their own databases of individuals.

“It provides schools with an additional layer of security. They can enter the faces of their staff and students and well-known visitors,” Adkins said. “It sends administrators alerts if an unwanted person were to approach the door or anywhere on campus.”

In response to a question from a board member, Adkins clarified that all facial data is stored locally on school servers.