Roxy Todd, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Is W.Va.'s Foster Care System Failing Children? A Look Inside An Agency Wrestling With Long-Term Reforms

About 400,000 children across the U.S. are growing up inside the foster care system, overseen by government employees who are overworked, and agencies that are historically underfunded. When the opioid epidemic hit, foster care systems saw a massive increase in the number of kids in their care. West Virginia has been hit particularly hard. The state has the nation’s highest rate of children removed from their home and put into foster care.

Roughly 6,900 children in the state are in foster care, an increase of almost 60% over the past six years. And while state officials point to improvements in the past several years, others argue these reforms don’t go far enough, including 12 foster care children who are now suing the state.

“I’ve been in group homes, detention centers, emergency shelters,” said Geard Mitchell, one of the now-adult plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit that says West Virginia’s foster care system has failed to protect children. “I’ve been in just about every placement they could possibly put a kid in all in one short childhood.”

Mitchell and 11 other foster children are named in a lawsuit filed in 2019 by A Better Childhood (ABC), a child advocacy organization based in New York City.

Lawyers with ABC say the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has made some improvements to its foster care system in recent years, but that these changes don’t go far enough.

“They have a lot of good policies, but they’re not implementing them,” said Marcia Lowry, a lawyer with ABC. The suit claims that foster care children in West Virginia are mistreated and shuffled between “inadequate and dangerous placements, forced to unnecessarily languish in foster care for years.”

According to the DHHR, 12 percent of children who are in the agency’s custody live in institutional settings, what the state calls “residential treatment programs.”

For teenagers, the rate is much higher– 44 percent.

Institutionalized For Eight Years

Beginning when he was 11 years old, Mitchell was shuffled between institutional living facilities, including an out-of-state group home in middle Tennessee.

“When I was 12, my worker sent me to a group home for a residential group home for boys that had committed a sex offense. And I didn’t commit a sex offense.”

A judge later found that although the DHHR investigated Mitchell for sexual misconduct, they never brought any charges or presented any evidence in court. And yet he wound up in a group home in Tennessee where most residents were over the age of 15 and had charges pending against them for sex offenses, including rape.

“I was mad that I was around that type of environment. And I didn’t need to be. It got to my head, it started making me like, depressed and it started to make me like, think, like, man, I’m never going to get out.”

Mitchell felt uncomfortable at the facility, and says he begged his caseworker to move him. But he remained there for a year and a half. Later, when Mitchell was 16, he was sent to a maximum security detention center in Boone County, West Virginia. He alleges the only reason he was placed in this prison-like environment was because there were no emergency shelters available.

“Most nights I would wake up and my back would be stiff, or my neck would hurt because I’m sleeping on pretty much bare sheet metal,” Mitchell recalled. He spent his 17th birthday behind bars. “I was depressed. Not because I wasn’t getting any gifts or nothing but because I had no one that I actually cared about or no one that I trusted to spend time with me for my birthday.”

Mitchell’s former lawyer, Scott Briscoe, says stories like these are too common in West Virginia. “I’ve have children in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, all up and down the East Coast. And I think that we need to focus on getting them the services here at home, instead of sending them abroad.”

And that’s one of the main arguments of the ABC lawsuit. That the state of West Virginia sends too many children to live in out-of-state institutions.

The state argues that the lawsuit is unfounded, and they’re already making reforms that will fix these problems.

The DHHR has implemented several programs, including the Safe at Home West Virginia program, which aims to keep more children with their families, or in their communities, instead of sending them out of state or to larger facilities.

They’ve also launched a program called the Children’s Mobile Crisis Response, where parents, caregivers and foster parents can call for help if a child, teenager or young person in their care is experiencing emotional or behavioral emergency. Mental health professionals can visit the home and help support the child, with the goal of giving them care in their own home, without removing them.

The claims in the ABC lawsuit echo similar allegations made by the Department of Justice. In 2015, the DOJ found that in West Virginia children with mental health conditions were being institutionalized for too long. Four years later, West Virginia and the DOJ signed an agreement that they would work together to expand children’s mental health services throughout the state. The state DHHR vowed to reduce the number of foster care children who are placed in psychiatric hospitals, group homes, and shelters.

As a result, in West Virginia, the number of foster children in institutional settings has decreased since 2015. From over 1,100 kids to 834 as of October this year.

However, it’s not clear yet how much the COVID-19 pandemic may be impacting this data. In an emailed response to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Allison Adler, communications director for the DHHR, clarified that “Once the pandemic is over and all children are back in in-person school full-time, there may be a spike in the number of children in need of intensive mental health services.”

At a recent Zoom meeting hosted by the DHHR, lawyers from the DOJ acknowledged that there’s still a long way to go. “We all knew when we signed the agreement that this system reform is a long-term system reform,” said DOJ attorney Haley Van Erem.

“I’m really excited, that the state has done a lot of work in the midst of COVID in the last year to really get these services in place and put down the building blocks, and we’re really excited to see where that’s going from here.”

The DHHR has submitted a plan to the DOJ to address its concerns, which will go out for public review in January.

Legislative Reforms

This past year, state lawmakers passed bi-partisan legislation, HB 4092, aimed at improving the foster care system. The new law is still in its infancy, so it’s not clear yet if it will result in fewer children placed in residential care. “Part of the problem is that there are demographics of foster children that are hard to place,” said Jeff Pack, a member of the House of Delegates from Raleigh County, who was a lead sponsor of the bill.

Jeff Pack, a member of the House of Delegates from Raleigh County, was a lead sponsor of HB 4092, which focused on reforming the state’s foster care system.

Among other things, this law provides more money towards placing foster care teenagers, and children with behavioral problems.

“The reimbursement rate from the state per day is increased for demographics of kids that are harder to place,” Pack said. “That was supposed to be effective Dec. 1, but they hit a little snag with that. So it may be into next year before that’s functional.”

The DHHR confirmed that this aspect of the new legislation is delayed, “DHHR is working with stakeholders to implement the contract as soon as possible; however, due to input from stakeholders, the process is taking longer than expected,” an agency spokesperson told West Virginia Public Broadcasting in an email.

HB 4092 provides nearly $17 million in additional funding for foster care, including funding for increased financial support to families providing care to foster children.

An additional bill, HB 4094, which also passed this year, established a new position, the “Foster Care Ombudsman,” who is tasked with establishing a statewide procedure to receive, investigate, and resolve complaints filed on behalf of foster children.

And while these legislative reforms do make changes to some aspects of how foster care is overseen in the state, neither law sets a limit on the number of cases that each CPS worker will oversee.

For the past several years, the state DHHR has struggled to staff all of its CPS positions. A 2019 report by the agency stated that 18 percent of CPS positions were vacant, and CPS staff have a turnover rate of 27 percent.

That’s one of the main changes to foster care that Mitchell and the other plaintiffs in the ABC case say they want.

“I just hope for it to better the system and change it, or supply more workers, and actually help kids out, instead of putting them in placements over and over again, just because they don’t know what to do with them,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think that’s fair to the children.”

Mitchell says he rarely saw his social workers, and when he did, they seemed ready to judge him.

“I was a child, a very young child at that, facing a courtroom. I definitely needed, like a bigger brother, like someone [who] had been through it. Someone that could teach me how to get through it.”

At times, Mitchell said, he lost hope that he would ever be free.

But something changed for him when he turned 17. On his 17th birthday, he had a surprise. “When we went into the dining room for dinner, the cook had put a piece of cake on my tray.” It was a small gesture, but it made a big difference.

After that, it was like, I started getting just a little bit more hope.”

He began thinking about the future. And he reached out to his uncle and aunt in Cleveland. They offered to take him in once he aged out of foster care. Mitchell lives there now, in their home.

He dreams of becoming a tattoo artist and opening his own shop.

“Because whenever I was locked up, and putting all these placements back to back, I had found one coping skill and it was drawing.”

One of his recurring themes is Mickey Mouse. He says: “For me, Mickey Mouse is a symbolization for me to where I never had a childhood. So it was a like, a constant reminder to, if I ever have a son to make sure he has a good childhood or if I ever have a daughter to make sure she has a good childhood.”

Mitchell agreed to a request during an interview to draw something that was important to him. His intricate design included the words “Stand Up for Children” centered on the page.

Mitchell is one of 12 plaintiffs in the case against the state of West Virginia, but lawyers are asking that this lawsuit be considered a class action lawsuit, on behalf of nearly 7,000 children. A ruling on that decision to consider this a class action suit is still pending. This case is expected to go to trial sometime in 2021.

Meanwhile, the State of West Virginia has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and they dispute the findings in the complaint. They also filed a request to have Mitchell removed from the lawsuit as a plaintiff, on the grounds that he was not in foster care at the time the suit was filed.

State officials with the DHHR declined a request to do a recorded interview for this story. They emailed a response, which is excerpted below:

Response to ABC lawsuit: DHHR will not comment on the specific allegations related to a specific child, other than the responses provided in DHHR’s public filings in the ABC lawsuit, which have been carefully vetted by the agency and redacted as necessary to protect their privacy. West Virginia law requires that circuit courts review and approve all placements of all children in DHHR custody as the “least restrictive” available for the needs of the child and in the child’s best interest. West Virginia law prohibits a circuit court from placing a child in a detention center, unless he or she has been charged as a juvenile delinquent or with a juvenile status offense.

Response to DOJ investigation: West Virginia has significantly decreased the percentage of children in foster care placed in residential treatment programs since 2014. DHHR disputed and continues to dispute DOJ’s findings. For example, DOJ’s findings about the number of children in “institutions” included children adjudicated as juvenile delinquents who were ordered by circuit courts into residential treatment programs in lieu of detention at a Bureau for Juvenile Services detention center. Nevertheless, DHHR agreed to enter the MOU with DOJ because DHHR acknowledges there is a need for more providers of community-based mental health services for children in West Virginia, and DHHR believes it is in the State’s best interest to work with its federal partners (including DOJ) to expand access to those services. DHHR has taken many steps to expand access to intensive, community-based mental health since 2015.

*Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly named Mitchell’s former lawyer “Scott Driscoe”. Mitchell’s former lawyer is named Scott Briscoe.
This story is part of an episode of Inside Appalachia that features several young people who were former foster care children.

Did West Virginia Inspire 'Country Roads'? 50 Years Later, Here's What We Know

One night in 1970, Bill Danoff and his then-girlfriend Taffy Nivert were hanging out with John Denver, and they played a few verses from a song they’d been working on. Denver immediately said he wanted to record it.

“It was sort of like an old movie,” Danoff recalled in a 2010 interview with the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. “You know, ‘why don’t we all do it together?’ And I said, ‘okay, well, we got to finish it.’ He said, ‘well, let’s finish it.’”

The three of them — Danoff, Nivert and Denver — stayed up all night finishing the song. Knowing little about the state, Nivert pulled out an encyclopedia and looked up West Virginia.

“We kept just throwing out lines,” Danoff said. “And then we’d write down the ones that seemed to fit.”

They played “Country Roads” the next night, at The Cellar Door, an iconic intimate venue in Washington D.C.

Stories From 'Country Roads' – First Public Performance

“The people clapped for about five minutes straight,” Danoff said. “First time they’d ever heard the song. And you knew you had something because that doesn’t, that just doesn’t happen, you know?”

One of those in the audience was Andy Ridenour, who at the time was a student at Concord College (now Concord University), in southern West Virginia.

“I was on holiday break between Christmas and New Year’s, along with some friends from West Virginia. We all went nuts, with our West Virginia connection. Quite frankly everybody went nuts.”

This wasn’t the first time Ridenour had seen Denver play. A couple months prior to the show at The Cellar Door, Denver played at Concord College. Ridenour believes Denver’s trip to the small town of Athens, West Virginia may have helped spark the hit single.

Newspaper article previewing John Denver’s visit to Concord College (now Concord University) in fall 1970.

“He and his band flew into Roanoke, Virginia, and they had to drive over on old US 460,” Ridenour said. “A lot of it was two-lane roads, running parallel to the New River. And when John and his band got out of the car, they commented on the roads. They were happy to have safely arrived.”

When “Country Roads” was released the following year, Ridenour said Denver sent an autographed copy of the album to the Concord radio station. “He said, ‘thanks for the inspiration.’”

John Denver performing at the Cellar Door in D.C. in 1970.

The song has been a worldwide anthem since its release in April 1971, and it’s one of the things people across the globe connect with West Virginia. But there’s a debate about whether the song was really even written about the state. The opening verse mentions the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the Shenandoah River, two geographical features that are mostly associated with Western Maryland and Virginia. While the river and mountains do touch a small portion of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, Danoff said he wrote most of the song during a drive through rural Maryland.

“I was just driving out in Western Maryland, and it was kind of countryside that reminded me of my home upbringing in Western New England.”

But Danoff said he does have a connection to West Virginia. Growing up, he spent many evenings listening to the Wheeling Jamboree from WWVA.

“In the bridge of that song. there’s a there’s a line: ‘I hear her voice in the morning hour she calls me/ the radio reminds me of my home far away/ and riding down the road I get a feeling I should have been home yesterday.’”

“I’m thinking of that radio,” Danoff explained. “I’m thinking of WWVA and heading toward that that radio signal. So there really was a kind of an early and subconscious connection.”

And as for the geographical issue, when somebody pointed that out, Danoff came up with this answer, on the fly. “So I thought about it and I said, ‘well, the guy’s going home to West Virginia. He’s going through Virginia, and he’s passing the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Shenandoah River.’”

These details don’t seem to bother most West Virginians.

“I think that we excuse it,” said Sarah Morris, an English professor at West Virginia University who is writing a book about “Country Roads.” She’s scoured the internet and read dozens of threads. People all over the world debate what this song is really about, and which state really gets to claim it.

“And lots of places across the world want to own it, which is why we see bands and musicians taking it up and changing the lyrics to match their homes,” Morris said.

The song “Country Roads” has been recorded in at least 19 different languages, and in countless different arrangements, including the Toots and the Maytails’ version “West Jamaica.” That bands’ lead singer recently died of COVID-19.

But nobody owns the anthem more than West Virginians. The state bought the rights to the song so they could use it to promote tourism. West Virginia University plays it whenever they win a football or basketball game.

WVU Football: Country Roads

When West Virginia Public Broadcasting out a call out on social media, asking people to share stories about this song, and what it means to them, we were flooded with emails from people like Stephanie Ostrowski, of Martinsburg, W.Va., who played “Country Roads” as the last song at her wedding. “Actually it’s become a tradition with a lot of our friends. Everyone gets arm at arm together and sings ‘Country Roads.’ It’s a great way to end the night.”

And Michael Rubin, who lives in Harpers Ferry W.Va., who recalled begging his father to buy the 8 track so they could play it in the car.

Frank Saporito of Wheeling said the song inspired him as a teenager to save all the money he earned so he could afford the same guitar that John Denver played.

Sarah Morris said this song is emblematic of a nostalgia for the past, and a desire for something just out of reach. These themes resonate strongly with many folks from West Virginia.

“There was this huge outmigration of West Virginians to work in industries in the 60s. West Virginia, per capita, lost more people in the Vietnam War than any other state. All of that was happening right around the time the song was released. So there was this overall mood of homesickness, not just for West Virginians, but also for our country. So the song was born into that.”

Homesickness is universal. Maybe that’s why it resonates with people all over the world. Morris compares it to a concept in Welch culture known as “Hiraeth.”

“It’s this deep, internal, fundamental longing for a place we can never go. And I think there’s an element of that in country roads, too.”

Morris said “Country Roads” is maybe about a longing for a place that never really existed in the first place. A place that our memories changed over the years.

And during the pandemic, that nostalgia has grown even stronger for some people, like Sonya Shafer. She left West Virginia right after high school. She’s traveled the world for work. Lately though, that work has all been remote. So she felt the urge to come back.

“I could feel the magnetic pull taking me taking me back, asking me why I left asking me why I’m not home, asking me why I’m not in West Virginia.”

Shafer hired movers to bring her stuff across the country from L.A. and bought a one-way ticket to Lewisburg, West Virginia, where she grew up. At the airport she recorded an audio memo, in between flights that were taking her home, in which

“Today’s the day I’m on layover here in O’Hare [airport in Chicago] with my cat. Really it’s ‘Country Roads,’ take me home. I’m going home. It’s been a long time coming, and I slept in an empty apartment last night and actually played the song a few times.”

Two weeks after the move, Shafer said returning to West Virginia has been everything she’d hoped. She takes a walk to a nearby creek every day– and she’s enjoying being called “honey” and “darlin.” And when she called the DMV to get her new license plate, she said her heart flooded with emotion when she heard the hold music, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

Job-Training Program In Southern W.Va. Marks 10-Year-Anniversary

Coalfield Development, a non-profit organization in southern West Virginia that works toward economic revitalization through new job training opportunities, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary.

Since 2010 the organization has trained over 1,200 people across the state.

The organization currently employs 34 full-time employees in West Virginia. It pairs on-the-job-training with time to pursue a college degree at a community college. Participants are also paid three hours a week to pursue personal development like life-skill training.

Someone who completes work commitments on the job for at least six months and earns at least four professional certifications is considered a graduate of Coalfield’s workforce program. Currently, about 70 percent of participants graduate.

Coalfield has invested in and owns over a dozen new businesses in the region, including a solar-installation company in Huntington, a woodshop in Wayne county, and Turnrow Farm Collective, which aggregates local produce and meats from across West Virginia. The organization has also provided financial support to an additional 30 businesses.

Some critics of the organization have lodged complaints in the past, saying participants aren’t compensated well-enough or provided health insurance. The program now offers health and dental insurance, according to Brandon Dennison, Coalfield Development’s CEO.

“We’ve achieved significant and very tangible positive outcomes for the region, but what I’m proudest of is the fact we’ve done it from the ground up,” Dennison said. “We truly respect and listen to the people of Appalachia. We sincerely believe in this place and its people.”

City of Charleston Hires New Mental Health Coordinator Amid COVID Concerns

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing added stress and anxiety across the nation and the globe. West Virginia’s capital city has responded by hiring a mental health coordinator to respond to growing local needs.

“This is a really stressful period, even for those who were not experiencing challenges before,” said Charleston Mayor Amy Goodwin, acknowledging financial stressors, evictions, childcare and other health issues that are impacting mental health.

Goodwin said Charleston has seen an increase in calls to 9-1-1 from people wanting help and needing somebody to talk to. She says a mental health coordinator will help increase the city’s capacity to get that assistance to more families.

The funds to support this new position will come from the CARES Act, federal money that Congress passed in March in response to the COVID crisis. The CARES Act contains additional funding that cities can apply for, through the Community Development Block Grants Program.

The Mental Health Coordinator will be responsible for coordinating the work of a Mental Health Response Team. The team will include City of Charleston staff, mental health experts, homeless shelters and social service providers.

If you want someone to talk to or need mental health assistance, West Virginia has a free emotional strength helpline for COVID-19-related stress. Call: 1-877-HELP304 Or text 1-877-435-7304 Chat: http://help304.com This hotline can connect you to a crisis counselor for stress-management strategies, community resources and referrals.

‘Birds Can Teach Us’: A 20-Year-Old Falconer On What It Takes To Hunt With Raptors

On his family’s farm in Randolph County, W.Va. 20-year-old Collin Waybright has a hobby that’s very different from streaming TV shows or playing video games. Waybright is one of the state’s youngest falconers. To be a falconer, you have to love birds and Waybright fits the bill.

“They all have different flight styles. And it’s amazing,” Waybright said. “They’re just so effortless. They can just soar on thermals. And whenever it gets a little windy, they just kind of tuck their wings back a little bit and go into it.”

Since he was a teenager, Waybright said he’s been impressed by the way birds’ bodies are built, and he feels it’s proof that a higher power has a hand in creating animals.

“Birds can teach us many things,” said Waybright.

Falconry, the sport of hunting with falcons or other birds of prey, dates back to 5,000 B.C in Mongolia. Some historians say people may have been bonding and partnering with birds of prey even longer than that.

Like most falconers, Waybright loves watching the birds hunt. But even more than that, he just loves watching them fly. At times, it’s like he vicariously gets to fly himself.

“I definitely have wished quite a few times that I could fly. I wish I could be up there. Just flying around. Be really cool.”

Learning To Be A Falconer

Waybright is one of 31 people in the state who have falconry licenses. Some surrounding states like Pennsylvania have more falconers, according to Rich Bailey, ornithologist with the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources.

Each state has its own licensing program, which includes an extensive test, and several years apprenticing with a master falconer. “It’s a very hard test,” said master falconer Mick Brown, who’s been practicing falconry for 18 years in Ohio, and all over the U.S. “I have an insurance license, investment license and a real estate license. The hardest test I ever took [was] the falconry test, to be honest with you.”

The test includes how to take care of a raptor, including disease and medicines, to ensure that people and wild animals are both protected. Only licensed falconers can care for birds of prey.

“If I go out of town, I can’t have you feed my bird,” said Brown. “I have to have a licensed falconer feed my bird. There’s not that many. So, I have to either take it to a falconer’s house and have him feed him or have him come to my house and feed him. So it’s very difficult.”

Brown said becoming a falconer requires a good deal of money. “It’s very expensive to get into.” Brown said he estimates it takes about $10,000 to get started. The cost of food is also expensive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZXTzxQhIYc

Waybright’s First Hawk

Waybright had a little help with his initial expenses, since he was just 14 years old when he started as a falconry apprentice. Another falconer loaned him the pens he needed, as well as the goshawk trap he used to trap his very first bird of prey.

The first thing a falconer does once they receive a license to become a falconry apprentice is trap their own young bird in the wild.

“The typical way that falconry works is you trap a young bird in juvenile plumage and train it,” Waybright said.

So in the middle of January six years ago, Waybright trekked out in the snow to try to catch a young red-tailed hawk. He said there were subzero temperatures the night he left a rabbit as bait in a Swedish Goshawk trap.

He went to check the trap early the next morning. “It was dark and the trap was shut. You never know what you’re going to catch. You could catch an owl, a hawk, something like that. This was the first bird I had caught, and it was a juvenile red-tailed hawk. Out of all the birds that I could have caught for the first time in that trap, it was what I was after. And that is just amazing to me to this day.”

He named that red-tailed hawk Ace. He loved that bird, and for about two months, he spent all his spare time training Ace, hunting with Ace. His mom, Marsha Waybright, said her son and the hawk were nearly inseparable. Falconry requires that a falconer forms a strong bond with a bird of prey.

Hawks aren’t motivated to hunt on command; they hunt for the same reasons a hawk does in the wild—because they’re hungry. That means a falconer has to keep close tabs on their bird’s weight, making sure they don’t get overfed- but also stay healthy. Waybright taught Ace calls so they could communicate in the woods. Waybright hunts small animals with his hawks, like rabbits or squirrels. Waybright walks through fields and forest and the bird follows, flying from tree top to tree top, scanning for prey. They hunt together like this, but the birds really do most of the work. Waybright usually lets his hawks eat the prey, after they kill it.

Waybright got very attached to his first bird, Ace. They hunted together, for several years, just the two of them.

In the wild, half of hawks die in their first year. If they survive past that, hawks typically live another nine or so years. But if a falconer is feeding them, they can live for up to three decades. Collin’s hawk Ace wasn’t so lucky.

“Ace ended up passing away in the second season I trained him,” Waybright recalled. “He was fine one day. Then the next day, he was acting a little bit slow. Next day, there was clearly something wrong. [So I] called the Raptor Center.”

The West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center in Fairmont advised Waybright, trying to determine what was wrong with Ace.

“And then the next day he had passed away. So that’s one of the hardest things, ever.” Waybright said the veterinarians told him Ace probably died from a genetic disease.

Since then, he’s trained eight birds of prey. He’s released some of these birds back into the wild.

Teaching Others

Even today, six years after first discovering his love of hawks, he recalls the first time he saw a bird of prey, at a public event at Stonewall Resort.

“I saw this raptor display, and I thought it was just amazing.”

Now, doing presentations with the public is one of Waybright’s favorite parts of being a falconer. Especially teaching children about birds.

Collin Waybright teaching a group of kids about falconry and introducing them to his hawk Rico.

“I ask them questions as I’m talking to them, and their reactions to the questions are just priceless. I’ll look at them and ask, ‘how much do you guys think this bird weighs?’ And I’ll get guesses from 20 to 100 pounds. It’s just funny whenever you say, ‘well, no, this guy only weighs about two to three pounds.’ And then the jaws drop, you know?”

Most of these public talks have been put on hold during the pandemic. But Waybright said he does offer informal demonstrations at his family’s farm, where his mother also manages a bed and breakfast. And one day, he said if someone approaches him with the right passion for learning falconry, he’d consider taking them on as an apprentice.

His advice to anyone who is interested is that they “go hunting with a falconer. Go experience that. Go make sure if it’s something you want to do.” Waybright said if someone approached him and asked if he would teach them, he would have to evaluate if the person is serious about becoming a falconer. “It’s not for everyone. You don’t want to get into it blindly. Make sure it’s something you really want to do before you become a falconer.”

This story is part of a recent episode of Inside Appalachia about exploring the outdoors.

Pediatric Experts Say Much Is Unknown About COVID And Children

While the president has asserted that children are “almost immune” from COVID-19, public health experts say many things are unknown about how the virus impacts youth, particularly long-term.

“The short answer is that we do not know,” said Dr. Mariana Lanata, a pediatric infectious disease specialist who works at Marshall Health. “This virus is completely new, and we are still getting to know it and know what it does.”

So far, there have been 11 outbreaks in daycares and at-home childcare businesses in West Virginia, according to the Department of Health and Human Resources. Twenty-five staff and 15 children have contracted COVID through a daycare or a home childcare setting. Six child-care centers are currently closed because they have a current or active case of COVID reported at their facility.

Last week, Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump campaign from using its platform, over a tweet that linked to a video in which the president made false claims about COVID-19. The video was of an interview on Fox News, in which President Trump claimed that children are “almost immune from this disease.”

This controversy occurred in the midst of an increasingly politicized debate over whether to reopen schools this fall, and whether it’s safe for children to attend in person, or virtually.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while some children and infants have been sick with COVID-19, adults make up most of the known cases to date.

West Virginia father Will Laird with his sons Liam (age 9) and Conrad (age 6).

At this time, there’s limited research into the possible health impacts for children who do get the virus. Among concerns for pediatric experts is how contracting the virus might impact children later in life. Some children do develop serious conditions, and some have even died. Many of the children who developed serious infections were otherwise healthy, so it’s not quite clear how to predict which children may be most at risk.

“If your child is one of the ones that develops a more severe presentation, which may end up having them be admitted to the intensive care unit, having kidney failure or needing more support, then they may have more chronic consequences depending on how much their organs are affected,” Lanata said.

Despite these risks, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children return to school in person, if administrators can enforce social distancing. This is because there are advantages to in-person learning, emotionally and mentally.

“Children do better, when there are stressors, when they are in their normal routine,” said Dr. Kathryn Moffett, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at West Virginia University School of Medicine. She and other pediatricians advise that each family needs to be able to decide for themselves if they should return to in-person learning.

Emma Pepper and her son in their home in Charleston, W.Va.

Moffett said she’s heard from parents who are worried, particularly because doctors can’t say for certain which children are at risk, or what could be the potential long-term impacts for kids who contract COVID-19

“I think fear is the fear of the unknown of this Multi[system] Inflammatory Syndrome in children… a toxic shock-like syndrome and children,” Moffett said. “There have only been a few hundred cases reported, with several dozen deaths. But when you look at a healthy child who then gets this inflammatory syndrome and potentially dies, then it’s significant. It doesn’t matter how rare it is. I think parents can imagine that it could be their own child who gets that.”

The reality for many parents is they simply do not have the ability to work from home, according to Lanata. “And they will have to, no matter what, send their kids to school or daycare, even if they’re uncomfortable with that decision.”

Both Lanata and Moffett agree that preventing further outbreaks at daycares, and ensuring that schools reopen safely, requires that administrators, families and teachers communicate quickly, if a case is reported at a school.

“I think that being reassured that the schools safely have a plan in place, will put a lot of parents minds at ease,” Moffett said.

Schools in West Virginia are set to open on Sept. 8, Gov. Jim Justice announced in a virtual press briefing last week.

Moffett’s advice to families if they choose in-person learning is that adults should help model mask-wearing and encourage children to do the same.

“Especially young children, have them practice at home.” Moffett said, noting that parents can engage younger children by having them to put masks on their dolls, Beanie Babies or stuffed animals. Play, she added, is one of the ways children learn.

“Help them understand why they’re wearing them to protect others,” she said. “You make it a story. Help them to learn. I think the children would surprise us.”