MORGANTOWN – The House Education Committee spent five hours Thursday hashing over a bill to allow select teachers to serve as armed School Protection Officers in their buildings.
HB 2364 is a substantially revised version of a bill that passed out of House Education last year but died in Judiciary. The committee spent 90 minutes on it Thursday morning and another 3 ½ hours on it in the afternoon.
Under the new version, a county board would hold public hearings on its desire to use SPOs.
Any teacher or administrator seeking an SPO designation would apply in writing. The candidate must be licensed to carry a concealed weapon and undergo a 24-hour training program with eight hours of that in-person. The candidate would also undergo active shooter training conducted by the county sheriff and qualify with the gun they plan to carry. They must be re-certified on the gun annually.
An elementary school could have up to two SPOs, a secondary school up to three. The county board would select the SPOs from those who apply.
The school principal would know the identities of the SPOs, but not fellow teachers. Lead sponsor Doug Smith, R-Mercer, said this is so a shooter couldn’t know and target an SPO.
Smith, a retired Army colonel and police officer, said he talked to teachers in several counties; some were for it, some against it.
Delegates on both sides posed a host of questions. They dealt with such issues as training, and how 24 hours is much less than what a police officer undergoes; insurance coverage for harm caused by accidental gun discharges; a teacher’s fitness to competently handle a chaotic active shooter situation; the danger an armed teacher might face if responding police don’t know who the SPO is.
Proponents noted the average police response time to a shooting is 10 to 17 minutes, which can be well after the average time an incident takes – 12 minutes.
Drew McClanahan, with the state Department of Education, said the state board hasn’t taken a position on the issue. Most counties have armed School Resource Officers in place in some schools, but not every school, and he didn’t have a specific number. He was not aware of any county board asking for the bill.
The two teacher union presidents, Fred Albert with American Federation of Teachers West Virginia, and Dale Lee with West Virginia Education Association, stood together to answer questions.
Albert said, “Our stand is let’s let teachers teach, let’s let SROs take care of safety in the schools.”
Lee said there have been less than 650 deaths in all school shootings. That’s not good, but there are far more deaths by suicide each year. “We should be focused on the mental well-being and mental aspect of our kids.”
Albert said he’d be willing to put an SRO in every school rather than having armed teachers in them. Teachers don’t want the job.
The majority defeated three proposed amendments to the bill. One would have required a pschological exam for any SPO candidate. Another would have required a $2 million liability insurance policy to cover any incidents associated with the SPO. The third called for a local option referendum before a county board decided to make use of SPOs.
Delegate Cody Thompson, D-Randolph and a teacher, said safety is important. “This is not the way to go about that. This is something we overwhelmingly do not want.” SROs are better for the job.
Supporters argued that not every school has an SRO and this is an option for county boards to enhance protection. One asked what happens if the SRO is the first person to get shot.
The bill passed in a 16-7 roll call vote, on party lines, and goes to Judiciary.
Tweet David Beard @dbeardtdp Email dbeard@dominionpost.com
