BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) -With the start of the new school year, all Monongalia County Schools will now have a school safety officer, including elementary schools.
Monongalia County Schools and the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office started implementing school safety officers last school year with five. This year, there will be 12 to primarily focus on safety of the schools.
Sheriff Todd Forbes said this will help prevent issues from arising at schools.
“It’s an opportunity to get somebody at all the schools- the SROs and the PROs that we’ve had before they were exclusive to one school or two schools so there would be many many schools that wouldn’t see law enforcement unless there was a problem and we want to have law enforcement there to prevent the problem in the first place,” Sheriff Forbes said.
The school safety officers are retired law enforcement. Sheriff Forbes said they differ from school resource officers in some of their duties.
“The resource officers may be asked to spend more time with the kid, maybe teach a class, be more associated with the educational side of the school, whereas the school safety officers are there primarily and exclusively for the safety of the children and the staff. Their job is to do patrols around the school and monitor cameras to make sure everything is as it should be,” said Sheriff Forbes.
Monongalia County Schools officials believe it will also help foster better relationships between law enforcement and the community.
“I think having those officers present in the building really helps develop relationships between our students and law enforcement in our community, that’s what it’s about they’re not there for discipline purposes, they’re there to develop those relationships and to provide that sense of protection and safety for the folks in our buildings,” said Dr. Eddie Campbell, Superintendent Of Schools in Monongalia County.
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