Senate Bill No. 408

(By Senator Schoonover)

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[Introduced February 5, 1998; referred to the Committee
on Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article five, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section thirty-one, relating to county boards of education; and creating school zone police officers.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article five, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section thirty-one, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.

§18-5-31. School zone police officers.
The county board of education may appoint an employee of the county school board, who has attended a course of instruction approved by the state school board, to the duty of controlling and directing traffic upon designated parts of the streets, avenues, roads, alleys or ways at or near schools. This person shall be designated as a special school zone police officer who shall be vested with all the powers of a deputy sheriff to enforce the criminal laws of this state. The special school zone police officer shall wear a uniform and display a badge or other sign of authority. It is not intended, however, that the special school zone police officer come within the civil service provisions of this article or the policemen's pension and relief fund provisions of article twenty-two, chapter eight of this code.
The special school zone officer shall, before assuming the officer's duties, execute a bond with security in the sum of three thousand five hundred dollars, payable to the state of West Virginia, conditioned for faithful performance of the officer's duties. The bond shall be one approved as to form by the attorney general and filed with the secretary of state.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to create a school zone police officer responsible for controlling and directing traffic on roads at or near schools.

Section 31 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.