MAKING IT OFFICIAL — Gov. Patrick Morrisey surrounded by local law enforcement and local school students for the ceremonial signing of House Bill 2802, a bill passed into law that allows police officers to spend more time in schools while also meeting training hour requirements. -- Brett Dunlap

PARKERSBURG — The idea of making police officers more visible in schools across the state was the focus of a visit by Gov. Patrick Morrisey to Parkersburg on Tuesday.

Morrisey was at Gihon Elementary School to have a ceremonial bill signing for House Bill 2802 that encourages law-enforcement officers to spend time in public schools to meet training hours requirements. The move allows officers to build relationships with students, staff and the administration while also providing additional security to school buildings.

“It is good to be celebrating West Virginia law-enforcement officers,” Morrisey said, adding as a past state attorney general he got the chance to work with West Virginia’s law enforcement. “We have some of the best in the country.

“They are heroes, aren’t they? They are incredible people. Under my administration we are going to do everything we can to help them out.”

The ceremony was attended by around 16 uniformed officers from the Parkersburg Police Department, the Wood County Sheriff’s Department, the West Virginia State Police, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and others. Also attending were Del. Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, and State Senator Mike Azinger, R-Wood, as well as Wood County Clerk Joe Gonzales and others.

“In recent years there has been an increased focus on having law enforcement at schools to better protect students, teachers and staff,” Morrisey said. “I don’t think any parent should have to worry about student safety while their children are at school.”

He spoke about the importance of having school resource officers in schools and wanting to bring more officers into the schools.

“We want to encourage and incentivize officers to spend more time in schools,” Morrisey said. “We want to do that while rewarding them in the process.”

The bill states that as part of the 16 hours of annual training officers have to go through to be able to do their jobs more efficiently, law enforcement officers can get some of those requirements taken care of by spending time in the schools doing work that insures school safety so it is treated as part of their regular training hours.

The governor talked about lawmakers looking at how to improve conditions in the classroom with no cellphone requirements and school mapping projects, so law enforcement knows the layout of each school.

“That is a good way to protect students, teachers and staff by having police periodically coming into schools,” Morrisey said.

It allows the officers to know the layout of schools better and where security concerns may be.

“Nothing more valuable than our kids,” Morrisey said.

Pinson, one of the main sponsors of the bill and a former police officer, thanked the governor for prioritizing school safety.

“With this bill we allow police officers access to our schools to certify those service training requirements and in doing so they are learning the layout of the school and developing relationships with the children, faculty and the administration in these buildings.”

When he was a police officer, it was called “community policing” when officers worked to build relationships with people.

“This is community policing at its very core,” Pinson said.

If an emergency would occur, the police would be able to respond in a timely and efficient manner to better protect the lives of everyone at the school, he said, adding officers will already be familiar with the layout of the school.

“We are excited to see you in the halls of schools throughout West Virginia, building relationships and making our schools safer,” Pinson said. “We want to make sure these children are at a place of safety in their schools.”

Morrisey said this is a commitment by police to be able to better protect the community as opposed to the “defund the police” rhetoric from a few years ago.

“These guys do such good work,” the governor said of the police.