New law increases school safety training
PARKERSBURG WV September 8 2019 New legislation now requires active shooter training for all school employees and students, and officials say they are working on different ways to meet those new requirements.
Don Brown, director of security for Wood County Schools, visited Martin Elementary School Friday morning to run through safety drills with staff and students. The school practiced lockout, lockdown and evacuation.
House Bill 206, which was passed by the West Virginia Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice, added multiple safety and awareness training requirements for both employees and students.
“There are a lot of trainings,” Brown said.
Both employees and students must now take active shooter training on an annual basis. For employees the training is done through an online service called Safe Schools. For the students, officials are using age-appropriate videos and practice drills.
“The idea is to inform them without frightening them,” he said.
Wood County Schools also requires employees to complete a “boundary safety” program, which trains professional and service personnel on how to properly interact with students and covers areas of texting and social media use, Brown said.
In some cases the required training covers things already in practice at area schools, such as mandatory reporting, which requires officials to report any suspicions of abuse or neglect of a child. Brown said the training reviews the mandatory reporting laws and gives employees tips on how to spot signs of abuse or neglect.
The school system also is required to conduct first aid training with all students and staff, and conducts AED and CPR training with some employees.
Brown said the state requires school systems set aside four work hours for employee safety training. The challenge, Brown said, is in fitting all of the required training into the allotted time.
“In that four hours, I have to slide in every training,” he said.
In some cases, employees are receiving different pieces of training on a rotating basis.
“If it is something required every other year, well you might be taking it this year and you might be taking it next year,” he said.
For some of the requirements, officials have not been provided with funding or guidance.
“It’s mandated, we just have to figure out how to do it,” Brown said.
This year the school system is using online videos produced by another school system to conduct age-appropriate active shooter training with students. Brown said he and his counterpart at Kanawha County Schools are looking at a joint effort to create more tailored active shooter training for next year.
Brown said the state will hold a conference of all school safety officials in October, the first of its kind in West Virginia.
“That will allow all of us to come together and say ‘how do we do this?’ or ‘this is an issue I’ve found,’ and see how others are dealing with these things,” Brown said. “We’re not the only ones. Every county is dealing with these issues right now.”
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