Martinsburg Initiative thanks sheriff’s social worker after school social worker killed

Margaret Kersey, director of the Martinsburg Initiative, told the Berkeley County Commission on May 8 that Alexis Worley, a social worker with the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department, provided immediate comfort and support after the Feb. 1 killing of school social worker Melody Cook.

Kersey said the Martinsburg Initiative — a police, school, community, health and education partnership that serves Martinsburg and Berkeley County — partnered with law enforcement to develop police social work and that the sheriff’s office had “the vision of trauma informed response and trauma informed policing.” She thanked Alexis “for taking care of our social worker” and said, “I just don't have words for how just, amazing it was that on the day that our social worker needed someone the most and her child needed someone the most, that your social worker was there for her.”

Nut graf: The commission heard the public acknowledgment during the meeting’s public-comment portion. The remarks outlined the role of embedded social workers in schools and law enforcement and recognized a specific, traumatic incident in which a sheriff’s department social worker provided on-scene support to a child after the death of a school employee.

According to Kersey, the Martinsburg Initiative had 10 school-based social workers and had partnered with the Martinsburg Police Department to develop police social work starting in 2020. Kersey said the initiative began police social work with one social worker and had grown to three. She said the sheriff’s department later hired its own social worker and the two organizations shared policies, memoranda of understanding and training.

Kersey recounted that on Feb. 1 Melody Cook — a school social worker who covered Mill Creek and Bunker Hill schools — drove with her estranged husband and their 10-year-old daughter to the state police barracks looking for help. In the parking lot, Cook was fatally shot and her husband died by suicide, Kersey said. The child was in the car and 911 and the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department responded. Kersey said Alexis Worley comforted and helped the child.

The sheriff who spoke at the meeting said the department regarded the position as a top priority and praised the hire, noting the social worker “has the green light to go” to incidents and “does not hesitate to respond.” Commissioners and county officials did not take formal action on the public comment; they received the remarks and expressed thanks.

Ending: The commission’s minutes record the public comment and the commission’s verbal acknowledgments; no ordinance, funding change or formal policy was proposed or adopted during the remarks.