Parents outraged with no school resource officer on duty after gun scare at West Virginia school

BROOKE COUNTY, W.Va. (WTRF) — Police say a scare near Hooverson Heights Elementary on Thursday afternoon turned out to be a false alarm, but parents say it’s still a problem.

Around 3:30 p.m., dismissal time, an alert parent spotted a man carrying what looked like a rifle near the school and called 911.

Immediately, Brooke County Middle and High schools were placed on lockdown, but we spoke to parents, who wished to remain anonymous in fear of retaliation. They say dismissal continued at the elementary building, among other safety concerns.

None of our kids or our parents are all of these kids who are coming out. We’re notified that anything was even going on.”
Parent

Families took issue with the fact that they were not alerted of the incident until this Facebook post was made more than 5 hours later. And they waited until this morning to receive a one call from the district.

Additionally, we learned the school’s resource officer is on vacation this week.

We didn’t have a resource officer there; there was no cop there, nothing. So, if that guy did in fact want to turn around and use that gun, he could’ve slaughtered the whole entire school”
Parent

And 7News confirmed there was no replacement officer in the building at the time of the incident.

Those teachers and those students don’t deserve not to be protected, and that just shows you right there it could’ve been so much worse.

Sheriff’s deputies quickly began searching for the suspect, and the vehicle was later tracked to Wellsburg. Police determined the weapon was actually an air gun designed to look like a .22 caliber rifle.

7News received a statement from the Brooke County Sheriff and can be found below:

I want to stress that at no point was there any danger from this incident to the community or of the students or staff of our schools. I want to thank the community for their alert and swift action in reporting this matter as well as the overwhelming police response.”
Brooke County Sheriff statement via press release

Sheriff Beatty of Brooke County says in today’s climate, every report of a possible weapon near a school will be taken seriously, and they credit both parents and officers for working together to resolve what could have been a very dangerous situation.

Additionally, we spoke with Dr. Crook, the superintendent of Brooke County Schools, who shared with 7News that the district collaborates fully with law enforcement and takes these incidents seriously.

Moving forward, they say they will continue to look at their own emergency procedures in addition to ways to advance their current security.