Clarke schools to let elementary security officers carry guns
BERRYVILLE VA April 29 2022— Security personnel at Clarke County’s two public elementary schools will be provided guns to carry while on duty, despite them no longer being sworn law-enforcement officers.
The officers, David Jarvis at Boyce Elementary and Bill Schoeb at D.G. Cooley Elementary, work for the county’s school division rather than a police agency. School resource officers (SROs) at Clarke County High School and Johnson-Williams Middle School, who already carry firearms, are sworn employees with the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office.
Monday night, the Clarke County School Board entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the sheriff’s office, which will take responsibility for providing the security officers the weapons and training to use them properly.
No major crimes or security problems have occurred in any of the county’s four schools, according to division Superintendent Chuck Bishop.
Arming the security officers is just a measure intended to help keep students and employees safe by dissuading anyone who might think about causing harm from doing so, Bishop maintains.
“This is an added layer of security in each (school) building,” he told the board.
Three schools used to have SROs. In 2020, Cooley was the last to receive one. The sheriff’s office received Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) grants to help cover expenses such as the officers’ salaries.
But in the past couple of years, budget constraints resulted in Cooley’s SRO being eliminated, Bishop said, with the unarmed security officer being stationed there instead.
“Although it has been a goal to fund an SRO in each building (school), the overall (county) budget will not support that expenditure,” Bishop wrote in a report to the board.
A DCJS grant also is helping cover expenses for the elementary security officers.
Jarvis’ and Schoeb’s main responsibilities as security officers are to maintain safety within the school buildings and grounds. As members of the school division’s safety team, they coordinate safety drills and inspections as well as coordinate and conduct safety training for staff and students, Bishop explained in a Tuesday email to The Winchester Star.
Under state code, school security officers are able to help maintain order and discipline, prevent crime, investigate violations of school board policies and detain students violating the law or policies on school property or at school-sponsored events. They do not have authority to actually enforce laws or make arrests — only sworn law-enforcement officers can do that.
Boyce Elementary is within the boundaries of the town of Boyce, which does not have a police department. Cooley Elementary is about a half-mile west of Berryville in unincorporated Clarke County. Therefore, the sheriff’s office is directly responsible for policing the areas where the schools are located.
As part of the MOU, all situations necessitating a police investigation, as well as any criminal incident involving a student, must be immediately reported to the sheriff’s office. And, in any emergency, schools must call 911 for general law enforcement assistance.
Virginia law lets school security officers who are not sworn officers to carry weapons if they retired or resigned from being a sworn officer within the past decade. They must remain in good standing with the agencies for which they worked.
Additionally, they must remain compliant with state standards for active law enforcement officers to carry weapons, which state code spells out. They also must complete a training course sponsored by a law enforcement agency serving the localities where they work. Matters that the course must cover include active shooter response, emergency evacuation procedures and threat assessment.
Bishop did not elaborate on Jarvis’ and Schoeb’s backgrounds. Employment laws limit information that can be released publicly about specific employees without their permission.
However, Bishop told the Star that “both gentleman are retired law-enforcement officers who joined CCPS (the school division) this year after distinguished careers.” He told the school board they qualify to carry firearms through their previous employers and underwent recent active shooter training conducted by the sheriff’s office at Cooley after school hours.
School principals are directly responsible for supervising school security officers, with guidance from the superintendent and the sheriff’s office. SROs, like other sheriff’s deputies, are supervised by the sheriff or a designee within the sheriff’s office.
Bishop said officials still are discussing whether Jarvis’ and Schoeb’s weapons will be concealed or visible.
“As part of this decision,” he said, “we want to get feedback from the SSOs (security officers) and building level administration in both elementary schools.”
Despite their unanimous vote to adopt the MOU, school board members voiced different opinions about matters pertaining to the security officers carrying guns.
Russell District member Andrew MacDonald, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who spent 26 years in the military, said he thinks the officers’ weapons should be visible. That way, students would feel safe and know who to notify if they become afraid, he said.
But “these are young children,” said Chairwoman Monica Singh-Smith, the Buckmarsh District’s representative. “I don’t want them to be scared.”
“Small children shouldn’t be afraid of someone just because they see someone carrying a weapon,” said MacDonald, who also has worked for the U.S. Department of Defense and within the defense industry.
Bishop said Jarvis and Schoeb will have uniforms that will identify them as security officers when police come onto campus.
“Uniforms command respect. A weapon commands respect,” MacDonald said. “It’s the message we (should) send to our children: This is the law. It commands respect.”
Students should understand that the security officers are there to help them, said White Post District member Chip Schutte.
As for carrying a weapon, Schutte said, “you hope you never have to use it, but you prepare for the worst.”
Vice Chairwoman Katie Kerr-Hobert, the Berryville District’s representative, said she trusts Bishop and Clarke County Sheriff Tony Roper to act in the schools’ and the public’s best interests.
Yet when weapons are involved, “the comfort factor of students and their families” should be of utmost concern, said Millwood District member Jonathan Turkel.
The sheriff’s office ultimately will decide which weapons from its stock to provide the security officers within the next several weeks, Bishop said.
Neither Roper nor his chief deputy, Travis Sumption, attended the board meeting. A deputy who was providing security for the meeting remained in the back of the room and did not address the board.
Winchester Star
