MORGANTOWN — School security guard legislation continues to wend its way through the Legislature, with a bill blending House and Senate versions earning unanimous House Judiciary Committee approval Friday.

HB 2164 will now head to the House floor. It’s the third iteration, blending House Education’s version with SB 450, which passed out of Senate Education and has been sitting in Senate Finance.

The House provisions say public and charter schools, along with private and religious schools, may employ school safety officers. SSOs must be former law enforcement officers and may carry firearms. They may detain but not arrest a suspect.

The hiring school must cover the equipment costs and provide insurance coverage. The bill prescribes training for the SSOs.

In a new bill section, it includes the Senate’s West Virginia Guardian program. This allows public schools, including charters (private and religious schools do not appear in this section), to contract with a former law enforcement officer to provide Guardian services.

The powers are essentially the same as for an SSO. Adding this to the House version gives schools a choice of bringing on an officer either as an employee or as an independent contractor.

One change from SB 450 is that HB 2164 cuts a provision providing qualified immunity from civil and criminal liability for the school and the Guardian. It substitutes an insurance requirement.

For both SSOs and Guardians, this is an option for a school, not mandatory.

Last year, the competing House and Senate approaches went to conference committee on the last day of the 2024 session but went unresolved before the session adjourned and both bills died.

On Friday, Delegate Michael Hornby, R-Berkeley, a bill co-sponsor, said they’ve worked hard on this for the past two years. “It’s about time we address this so that we can protect our kids.”

Delegate Keith Marple, R-Harrison, said every school in his county has a resource officer, and that officer is always the most popular adult in the school. They have good rapport with the kids, and the kids will come to them to share any problems they’re having at school or at home.

“They’ve been able to rescue some kids from dangerous situations in their homes,” he said.

The bill now heads to the House floor.