West Virginia law prohibits any person from possessing any firearm on any school bus, or in or on a public primary or secondary education building, structure, facility or grounds, including a vocational education building, structure, facility or grounds where secondary vocational education programs are conducted, or at a school-sponsored function.

Firearms are also prohibited in or on a private primary or secondary education building, structure or facility unless the private school has adopted written policies allowing for possession of firearms on or in the institution’s buildings, structures or facilities.¹

A court may also order the Division of Motor Vehicles to suspend the driver’s license or instruction permit issued to any violator between the ages of 14 and 18, for such period of time as the court deems appropriate. A license or permit suspension, however, may not extend beyond the violator’s 19th birthday.²

Exceptions to the prohibition on possessing firearms on school premises include:

• Possession of an unloaded firearm in a motor vehicle;

• Leaving an unloaded firearm in a locked motor vehicle; and

• Programs or raffles conducted with the approval of the county board of education or school which include the display of unloaded firearms.³

A principal shall suspend a pupil from school or from transportation to or from the school on any school bus if it is determined that a pupil brought a firearm onto a school bus or school premises.⁴ The principal then must recommend to the county board that the student be expelled.⁵

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1. W. Va. Code § 61-7-11a(b)(1).[↩]
2. W. Va. Code § 61-7-11a(d).[↩]
3. W. Va. Code § 61-7-11a(b)(2).[↩]
4. W. Va. Code § 18A-5-1a.[↩]
5. Id.[↩]