Elected Officials:
You can save face, and, at the same time, you might just be able to save lives, too.
First, let’s agree with these five facts:
- House Bill 5537, otherwise known as “Raylee’s Law”, is not an attack on homeschooling.
- What “Raylee’s Law” does propose is placing a hold on homeschooling students with pending child abuse or neglect investigations.
- The proposed legislation, in fact, would save homeschooling from being used as a safe place for child abusers by keeping children within reach of protection when they need it the most.
- Over the past decade, a record number of child abuse cases have been reported in West Virginia, including 5,500 substantiated cases in 2022 alone.
- In our public schools in the Mountain State, we have to feed the kids, and we have to counsel the kids, too, because poverty is real and because the ongoing drug epidemic has ravaged Appalachia, changing the family dynamic in West Virginia for two generations. At least.
Another fact: Raylee died of sepsis, a medical emergency that starts with an infection that becomes so overwhelming that her malnourished body likely released chemicals that caused inflammation, dangerous blood pressure decreases, and organ failure.
It’s likely she sweated and shivered simultaneously while slipping into septic shock and dying a death no child should. In reaction, prosecutors composed legislation that would keep kids like Raylee in school instead of allowing them to be pulled out of the classroom once an abuse complaint has been filed by a mandatory reporter.
“Raylee’s Law” has been proposed by W.Va. Del. Shawn Fluharty (D-5) every regular session since 2019, and last month it got closer than ever to passing until partisan politics and irrational logic took over to kill the bill. The “filibuster” escapades that took place on the final day of the regular session, sadly, were embarrassing for all West Virginians.
And the rage has been very real across the state – and country – ever since.
But there is good news, ladies and gentlemen, and that is that House Bill 5537 still can become law as early as the Legislature’s scheduled interim session in June at Canaan Valley State Park. Either three-fifths of the Legislature or Governor Patrick Morrisey can call a special session with “Raylee’s Law” as the only issue on the agenda, and a majority of state lawmakers can honor the 8-year-old by voting in favor of eliminating such a deadly loophole.
That way, it’s a victory for everyone. Republicans. Democrats. Governor Morrisey.
And, of course, for the children, too.
Sincerely,
Compassion Over Politics
