photo by: Joselyn King

Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger, left, and Ohio County Schools Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones speaks with school administrators on the topic of school safety Friday.

WHEELING — Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger told Ohio County Schools administrators Friday to “forget the colors” when defining school safety situations, and “just use plain language” to describe emergency happenings on school property.

Last year a “Code Red” — an alert meaning there was a lockdown at a school — was issued at Wheeling Park High School. Confusion ensued, and parents thinking there was an active shooter on the property converged on WPHS to pick up their children.

Ohio County Schools Assistant Superintendent Rick Jones has reached out to the Wheeling Police Department for direction on how the school district can better handle crisis situations.

On Friday, the school district’s administrators gathered for an informational session with Schwertfeger and other Wheeling police officers at their new police station.

Schwertfeger explained Ohio County Schools and the Wheeling Police Department would now be partnering on school security, and the school district would no longer be participating in the state prevention resource officer (PRO) program previously administered through the Ohio County Sheriff’s Department.

“We’re going to have the entirety of school security come under the Wheeling PD,” Schwertfeger said. “I think you’re going to see improvements as it relates to communication, and as it relates to being on the same page with training.”

Sworn officers with the Wheeling Police Department now will be assigned as “school resource officers” (SROs) at Wheeling Park High School and middle schools. But now retired officers still licensed to carry a weapon additionally will be hired as school security officers (SSOs) to provide security at elementary schools within Ohio County Schools.

On Monday, the Wheeling Police Department will be interviewing to hire four SSOs, and the positions should be filled by the end of the day, according to Schwertfeger.

An SSO will be considered a civilian staff member of the Wheeling Police Department. The SSO will not be in uniform, but will likely wear a police polo shirt and carry a firearm while on the job, he said.

The notable difference between the former PROs, and the SROs/SSOs is that the PROs were required to teach some classes in the school.

While SROs/SSOs won’t be required to provide safety classes, that doesn’t mean they will not do so, Schwertfeger explained.

Ohio County Schools’ relationship with the PRO program and the Ohio Sheriff’s Department ended earlier this year after a proposed financial contract between the school district and the Ohio County Commission was rejected. It would have raised the cost Ohio County Schools paid the county for each PRO from $60,000 a year to $84,500.

Nevertheless, PROs from across the state gathered this past week for their annual certification training conference at The HIghlands Event Center.

Ohio County Sheriff Tom Howard — himself a former PRO — organizes the annual conference each year. He expressed disappointment that there would be no certified PROs in any Ohio County public school this year.

The sheriff’s department still will provide PROs to private and parochial schools in Ohio County, according to Howard.

“It worries me about the safety…,” he said. “They don’t want us in the public schools — the school board and the county. But with that being said, we will be there when needed. Absolutely. We’ll always be there to protect the kids, no matter what happens.”