Trending
CHARLESTON -- A prevention resource officer at Ravenswood High School was among several officers honored during the annual PRO Conference.
The conference was held recently at The Highlands near Tridelphia. PROs are certified law enforcement officers who receive special training to serve in their local elementary, middle and high schools. They maintain an office at their schools and are on duty a minimum 35 to 40 hours each week, and also typically attend extra-curricular activities throughout the school year.
"The PRO Program allows officers to establish trust with the students and act as a liaison between the students and staff," said Justice Program Manager Tanisha Travis, the longtime PRO program coordinator. "PROs are not only trained to respond to dangerous school situations, but also provide mentoring services and talk to students about issues such as bullying, suicide prevention and drug abuse."
Among those honored was Ravenswood Police Cpl. Tom Speece, who earned the PRO Legacy Award. Speece is beginning his 19th year as a PRO at Ravenwood High, his alma mater, and is credited with helping the PRO Program get its start. He's formed friendships with students that endure into their adulthoods. He helps them get jobs, visits them in hospitals, comforts them at funerals, attends their weddings, and helps welcome their newborns, officials said.
"Schools with PROs in the building are the lucky ones, and since the program started in 1997 requests for officers have dramatically increased while funding has decreased," Travis said. "It's safe to say that having an officer in the school is better than not having an officer there. It would be wonderful if we could have them in every school in West Virginia."
The Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety oversees the program, through what is now the Justice and Community Services section of its Division of Administrative Services. As the name suggests, the program focuses on prevention as well as mentoring and safety. The 2019 conference provided training and certification to 101 PROs to serve in 32 counties -- the largest number of officers in the program's history.
"Every year, the stories of heroics and compassion of the police officers working in our West Virginia schools are exceptional," said DMAPS Cabinet Secretary Jeff Sandy. "This year's award winners are heroes to the highest degree."
Sandy said school-based law enforcement programs began in the 1950s, and have grown in popularity in recent decades. He noted that more communities began assigning officers to schools in the 1990s, amid growing fears about juvenile crime and high-profile school shootings as well as the resulting increase in funding for school-based law enforcement programs,
"Today, over 40 percent of U.S. schools nationwide, primarily at the secondary school level, have assigned police officers," Sandy said.
The PRO Program is supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, through its Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG) and the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Title II Grant Program.