By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org
    
CHARLESTON, W. Va. – West Virginia officials are reviewing the state of public school safety and may consider requiring all schools to employ armed staff, in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in December.
    
State Superintendent Jim Phares told the Associated Press recently that he has approached the state National Guard to analyze possible school safety threats and to help train staff for emergency situations like the recent massacre in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 first-graders and six adults dead.
    
West Virginia public school employees are currently trained in lockdown procedures to try to keep students safe during a threat, and that training continues to evolve as new school shootings surface across the country, Phares told the AP.
    
But currently districts in only 32 of the state’s 55 counties have armed officers in middle and high schools and officials have discussed expanding their presence to all schools, he said.
    
West Virginia House Speaker Rick Thompson told the news service school safety is expected to part of the legislative discussion in the session that starts tomorrow. Both of the national teachers unions have called for a ban on assault weapons as a solution for school violence, while the National Rifle Association has advocated for arming schools in the weeks since the Sandy Hook tragedy.
    
“I think it’s very important,” Thono said. “We’re going to explore that as we move through the session.”
    
While it’s unclear exactly how the legislature might approach the perceived threat of school violence,  the West Virginia Education Association is advocating for hiring more public school counselors to hone in on students struggling with mental health issues – the common denominator in most school violence.
   
“Counselors are overburdened with paperwork and career guidance and test coordinating and class scheduling,” David Haney, WVEA vice president, told the AP. “If we want to help some of these children that may have some of these mental issues, we need to have counselors.”
    
The Joint Judiciary Committee and the Joint Committee on Health are expected to review student mental health issues this week.