U.S. Attorney: Charges Against Pritt Offer Lessons For Parents

The criminal charge against schoolteacher, and now-former delegate, Elliott Pritt shocked many of his colleagues. He is accused of soliciting a student for explicit images before escalating to physical contact in his classroom. They also alarmed parents in West Virginia, who wonder how best to protect their children from predators who seem both successful and safe. 

Moore Capito is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, whose office is prosecuting the case. Capito talked with Maria Young about what specific steps parents can take to protect their children. 

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.    

Young: When you initially heard about these charges against this member of the House of Delegates, what was your initial reaction? 

Capito: I think my initial reaction is what is unknown probably to the public, but very well known in our office, is that we have very dedicated attorneys that work on cases that involve child crimes and exploitation crimes and grooming crimes every single day.  

This case in particular has hit the news given the level of profile of the defendant in the case. But what we hope the result will be is that parents that have children will have those difficult conversations, will discuss the importance of boundaries with their children, discuss the dangers of the online community, make children aware of the applications and that they are engaging in with their friends.  

Here’s the thing about the internet, and the way that kids communicate and oftentimes adults communicate in this day and age, is that it’s faceless. You really don’t know who you are talking to and so we encourage parents to be more and more involved and it’s never too often to check in with your children about who they are talking to and what they are doing.  

Young: What would you say parents out there need to do just technologically to stay on top of these kinds of threats? 

Capito: Every parent needs to be aware that this can happen to any child. You know, predators target children from all walks of life. A child does not have to come from a broken home or appear vulnerable in order to be a target. This could happen to the wealthiest child in the state of West Virginia, and this could also happen to a child that is the most needy and the most vulnerable in West Virginia.  

The individuals that seek to perpetrate these sorts of crimes on children are highly, highly sophisticated people. And grooming may start out with innocent seeming contacts and interactions. Predators have no problem taking their time to ultimately get to their goal of performing very, very bad activity.  

So here’s what I would say. Parents should know that groomers are sophisticated enough now to not only tell children what they want to hear in order to get them to continue to engage, they also know how to coach children on what to say to their parents to not raise suspicion, which makes things even scarier as a parent.  

So when we ask those questions, don’t leave that conversation having your child give you the perfunctory answer that is what you want to hear in order to satisfy yourself. Dig a little deeper, make sure you have an idea of what’s actually going on. Ask your child to show you what they’re talking about on the platform that they’re using. Show them how it works, show them who you’re talking to. Because as a parent, you have a right to know.  

So if you’re a child, say something. If you see something, say something. If something’s uncomfortable, tell your parents. And parents, call our office. We will work with you. We have extremely professional investigative bodies, and we will find the best path forward, which means giving your child the best chance of success and ensuring that anybody that’s on the street that is trying to perpetrate harm on the children in West Virginia is taken off the street just as soon as possible.