By: KELLI CASEMAN – DECEMBER 21, 2023 5:57 AM
There’s a crowd of candidates vying to become West Virginia’s next governor: the state’s attorney general, the secretary of state, the mayor of Huntington, a member of the House of Delegates, an automobile dealer, an owner of a preschool and a farmer. That’s a lot of candidates, with more sure to follow.
In this critical moment, it’s hard to tell which candidate, if any, will have the vision and determination to see beyond party platforms and polarizing hot-button issues to be the leader our state’s children desperately need.
For generations, about a quarter of West Virginians have grown up in poverty. We have the second-highest child poverty rate in the country and are the only state that had a higher child poverty rate in 2022 than in 2021. With poverty comes innumerable poor health problems and a lack of opportunities to get ahead. It’s become so commonplace we barely discuss it anymore.
Candidates love to talk about the economy, but how will we build a thriving, educated workforce when our young people have so few advantages and opportunities to get ahead?
The ongoing drug epidemic has caused depths of despair and trauma for West Virginia’s kids that many of us can’t fathom. West Virginia leads the country in neonatal abstinence syndrome and prenatal substance exposure by overwhelming margins. Out of the gate, these kids face potential developmental delays and lifelong medical complications. They’ve lost family members to overdoses and incarceration, and they have been shuffled through child protective services, foster care, and family court cases.
Will a candidate be willing to face these challenges head-on?
For the past several years, we’ve seen a handful of government scandals and criminal investigations plague this state, with kids at the heart of them.
There’s a federal class action lawsuit against the state’s foster care system. The complaint reads, “On Defendants’ watch, Plaintiffs, children in West Virginia’s foster care system, have been abused and neglected, put in inadequate and dangerous placements, institutionalized and segregated from the outside world, left without necessary services, and forced to unnecessarily languish in foster care for years.” Last month, the plaintiffs filed a motion against the state for “deliberate indifference” after three years of emails were deleted by the state Office of Technology — evidence that these children need to make their case.
There are continuing criminal cases and lawsuits against school staff and county school systems on behalf of special education students. Just last month in Monongalia County, a former elementary school principal was found guilty of failure to report child abuse. The former vice principal is facing charges of striking an 8-year-old. Two staffers in the same school are facing felony charges related to the maltreatment of a disabled child.
And allegedly, for at least two years, there was a hidden camera or cameras at the West Virginia State Police Academy Training Facility secretly and intentionally recording women and girls using the female locker room. Dozens of girls attending the West Virginia Junior Trooper Program at the Academy used this locker room, and it was State Police personnel who destroyed the evidence.
Candidates, West Virginia’s children have been surviving on a starvation diet for far too long— not just in resources but of compassion, consideration, and protection. These are “the least of us,” to paraphrase a visionary many of you will quote along the campaign trail. It will be the new governor’s job to prioritize our kids and rebuild a government that helps, not harms. They’re a critical investment in the state’s future, and leadership means taking responsibility. The buck should stop with you.
If you’re up to the task, candidates, here’s what you can do.
Own it. Kids shouldn’t be abused in our public schools, languishing in abusive facilities or vulnerable to predators within state systems. Assure us that these things won’t happen under your watch. Make it a pillar of your campaign to say that every West Virginia child has a gift — God-given potential — and under your leadership, we will find and foster their worth. Their potential is our potential.
Dig in and do the work. Create an Office of Children’s Health and Well-being in your cabinet. Hire the best and brightest West Virginia has to offer and be big enough to allow your staff to sometimes disagree with you. Schedule listening tours in communities across the state. Use that information to create a state strategic plan to address these kid-specific challenges and hold your administration responsible for implementing it.
Lead. Show West Virginia’s children what it means to be an effective leader. Put your fingers on the pulse of their lives and make decisions that help them find a way out of the dark places they’ve fallen into. Show them that clear values, hard work, and a moral compass can lead the way to better things. Inspire them to do better. Be a person they can believe in.
To paraphrase President Truman, progress comes when courageous leaders seize the opportunity to change things. Do you have the courage to change the way West Virginia cares for its children?
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