Academy Traditions
The academy has many traditions that students who attend and often civilians who visit the academy are expected to honor. For example, in each of the main buildings on the academy grounds there is a large tile replica of the West Virginia State Police patch directly in front of the entrance doors. It is difficult not to step on the patches due to their proximity to those doors. Those who step on the patches are sometimes scolded by academy staff members. Students are frequently punished for stepping on it as this is seen as a sign of disrespect. Students are required to clean the patches as part of a cleaning detail in addition to other assigned tasks.
Since the academy operates in a paramilitary nature, students are expected to salute ranking officers of the State Police and any other ranking law enforcement officer at the academy. Students often practice marching exercises as well as chanting, running and marching cadences.
The West Virginia State Police Academy is often referred to as "the hill" by its alumni.
Read more about this topic: West Virginia State Police Academy
Famous quotes containing the words academy and/or traditions:
“...I have come to make distinctions between what I call the academy and literature, the moral equivalents of church and God. The academy may lie, but literature tries to tell the truth.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)
“... the more we recruit from immigrants who bring no personal traditions with them, the more America is going to ignore the things of the spirit. No one whose consuming desire is either for food or for motor-cars is going to care about culture, or even know what it is.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)