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West Virginia House Education Committee OKs Alyssa’s Law school panic alarm bill

Lori Alhadeff holds a photo of her 14-year-old daughter Alyssa, who was one of 17 people killed in a 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Friday, June 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

CHARLESTON — The House of Delegates has joined the state Senate in advancing a bill to require each public school — including charters — to have on campus a wearable panic alarm system.

Each employee would be trained how to wear and use the alarm.

The House bill is HB 2394, approved without debate by the House Education Committee on Tuesday. It now moves to House Finance.

The Senate bill is SB 434, which advanced out of Senate Education and is sitting in Senate Finance.

Under both bills, the alarm would be tied to the local emergency alert system to be able to transmit 911 calls and mobile activations, and to initiate campus-wide lockdown notifications.

The bill would require local law enforcement to have access to campus security data, including cameras, maps and access control.

Both bills are called Alyssa’s Law. Alyssas-law.com explains that Alyssa Alhadeff was a 14-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. She was a victim Feb. 14, 2018, when a former student killed 17 people in a mass shooting at that school.

Alyssa’s mother, Lori Alhadeff, the site says, founded a nonprofit organization, Make Our Schools Safe, which is aimed at providing safety features tailored to the specific needs of schools. With her help, the final version of the law was named in Alyssa’s memory.

MakeOurSchoolsSafe.org shows that Alyssa’s Law has been enacted in seven states and is in progress in 20 others, including West Virginia.

The site says, “Alyssa’s Law is critical legislation addressing the issue of law enforcement response time when a life-threatening emergency occurs, because time equals life. The law calls for the installation of silent panic alarms that are directly linked to law enforcement, so in case of any emergency they will get on the scene as quickly as possible, take down a threat and triage any victims.”

A fiscal note with the Senate bill says the Department of Education has been advised that the system would cost about $8,400 per school for startup equipment and $1,600 per year, per school for monitoring and maintenance.

Starting at $2.99/week.

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