Kanawha County Story Archives - Page 5 of 27 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Organization Seeks Volunteers To Help Foster Care Children Navigate Court

An organization that helps foster children navigate the legal system in 10 West Virginia counties needs volunteers.

Western Regional Court Appointed Special Advocates or, CASA helps children in Boone, Cabell, Calhoun, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam, Roane and Wayne counties find someone to serve as the child’s voice throughout court proceedings.

Program Director, Kim Runyon Wilds said no that special experience is required and the organization provides training.

“We do not have enough advocates for every child, unfortunately,” Wilds said. “That’s why we are trying to get the word out about this program. We have almost 900 children that are waiting for one of our volunteers to be assigned to them just in our 10 county service area.”

Volunteers must be at least 21 years old and be able to pass a background check, including a child protective services check.

“After they get all of the background check stuff done, they’ve completed every chapter of training, then we swear them in with an oath of confidentiality with a circuit court judge,” Wilds said. “So once all of that is done, they’re ready to actually be an advocate for children who have experienced trauma.”

Wilds said each case is different. Some children who are involved in court because of abuse and neglect are assigned a Child Protective Service (CPS) social worker, and a guardian ad litem who is the attorney for the child.

Wilds said while CPS workers and guardians ad litem have large caseloads, CASA volunteers have one or two cases on average. The organization serves about 450 children each year.

“They have the ability, and frankly, the time to be able to do regular home visits, check in with the family and review records,” Wilds said. “Get a complete story of the family’s history, what’s going on, why is the family in court, and then they can then develop a relationship with the child. See what the child wants to happen in the case and see what the child’s best interests are, which will be the opinion of the advocate.”

According to Wilds, children with CASA volunteers spend less time in foster care on average and they’re half as likely to re-enter the foster care system.

“Long term outcomes for children who have been appointed a CASA volunteer are good, (they are) less likely to enter right back into foster care, less likely to drop out of school,” Wilds said. “Having the CASA volunteer, or even a consistent, caring and protective adult in a child’s life is enough to change their story. They’re changing a child’s story by helping a child advocating for a child just being a protective adult in a child’s life.”

Wilds said CASA’s ultimate goal is the reunification of the family, if at all possible.

“We want to get to know them and the environment they’re currently in along with where they came from, but our primary goal is reunification,” Wilds said. “If it can be safely achieved, we want the kids back with their parents, if that can happen.”

Interested individuals can contact CASA via their Facebook page, by calling 304-523-9587, ext. 307, or by emailing Wilds directly at kwilds@TEAMWV.org.

Adoptive Parents Charged With Felony Neglect After 3 Children Found Alone In Dangerous Conditions

Two adoptive parents have been charged with felony neglect after two children were found locked inside a small barn and a third child was located in an unprotected loft inside an adjacent home.

Two adoptive parents in West Virginia were charged with felony neglect after two children were found locked inside a small barn and a third child was located in an unprotected loft inside an adjacent home, police said Tuesday.

The parents were arraigned Tuesday on charges of gross child neglect creating a substantial risk of injury.

Authorities began investigating after they received a call Monday from someone expressing concern about the children’s welfare. Kanawha County sheriff’s deputies forced their way into the barn, where a boy and a girl were locked inside a small room. The children had been deprived of adequate food and hygienic care, and the room had no running water or bathroom facilities, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

Inside the main residence, a small child was found alone in a loft about 15 feet (4.6 meters) high with no protection from falling, the statement said.

No adults were present at the home. The adoptive parents were arrested when they returned, and each was being held in jail on a $200,000 cash bond. An Oct. 12 preliminary hearing is scheduled. Jail records didn’t indicate whether the parents have attorneys who could comment on the charges.

The Associated Press is not naming the parents in order to protect the identity of the children, who have been placed with Child Protective Services.

Police Search For Woman Who Lied About Flood Damage

Hackney is accused of lying to two disaster relief agencies to obtain aid after claiming her Cabin Creek home was damaged in floods late last month.

An arrest warrant has been issued for a woman accused of defrauding two West Virginia disaster relief agencies after last month’s floods in eastern Kanawha County.

The Kanawha County Sheriff’s office is searching for 26-year-old Brittany Lee Hackney of Sissonville.

Hackney is accused of lying to two disaster relief agencies to obtain aid after claiming her Cabin Creek home was damaged in floods late last month.

Police filed an arrest warrant for Hackney after it was discovered the address she provided to the American Red Cross and the West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster was fake.

The two organizations are helping residents who suffered flood damage from heavy rains in late August.

Hackney faces a felony count for obtaining $2000 in money, property and services under false pretenses.

Anyone with information about her whereabouts is encouraged to call Detective Daugherty with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s office at 304-357-0556.

Us & Them Host Trey Kay Remembers Alice Moore

The woman who sparked the 1974 Kanawha County Textbook Controversy has died. 82-year-old Alice Whitehurst Moore passed away at her home in Tennessee over the weekend.

Moore was on the Kanawha County Board of Education and sparked a national debate with her objection to a new set of language arts books designed to reflect America’s increasingly multicultural society. Moore helped mobilize a protest that targeted schools and businesses throughout the county.

National attention came when boycotts paralyzed businesses in Kanawha and eight surrounding counties. Moore never advocated violence, however some protesters resorted to such tactics.

The controversy extended well beyond the Kanawha Valley. It provided the newly formed Heritage Foundation with a cause to rally an emerging Christian conservative movement.

Listen to the Us & Them episode “Trey & Alice”
Listen to award-winning audio documentary The Great Textbook War

Us & Them host Trey Kay has this remembrance:

It’s with deep sadness that I report the passing of a dear friend and someone who helped define the Us & Them podcast in its earliest days. Alice Whitehurst Moore passed away on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. Her daughter Chrissie Moore-Henthorne says her mother died at her home in Acton, Tennessee surrounded by her family. She was 82 years old.

I first became aware of Alice when she served on the Kanawha County Board of Education in West Virginia in the 1970s. In 1974, when I was in 7th grade in that school district, Alice sparked a national debate and conversation on multiculturalism when she objected to the adoption of a new set of language arts classroom textbooks for the district.

The books were recommended by a group of English teachers to reflect America’s increasingly multicultural society. Alice reviewed many of the proposed books and found a significant number of the passages and themes to be objectionable. She met with concerned parents in church basements and community centers and mobilized a book protest.

The effort drew national attention because it called for boycotts that paralyzed businesses for Kanawha and eight surrounding counties. Although Alice never advocated violence, some protesters resorted to violent tactics. School buildings were hit by dynamite and Molotov cocktails, sniper bullets hit some school buses, journalists were beaten and protesting miners shut down some of the region’s coal mines.

Alice Moore’s campaign flyer.

*Courtesy*

Textbook supporters said new curriculum materials would introduce students to fresh ideas about multiculturalism. Opponents said the books undermined traditional American values. The controversy extended well beyond the Kanawha Valley and became a rallying point for the then newly formed Heritage Foundation and its Christian conservative movement.

As a student, I was aware of how the protests made my hometown of Charleston, West Virginia the spotlight of news. Decades later, I chronicled the story of the Kanawha County Textbook Controversy in an award-winning audio documentary The Great Textbook War.

Shown is a woman at a protest in the 1970s who was inspired by Alice Moore.

*Courtesy*

I met Alice while making that report, and we developed a deep friendship that led to the creation of the Us & Them podcast. Our very first episode was called “Trey & Alice” and it provides some insight into the loving and sometimes contentious relationship that Alice and I had through the years.

Alice left West Virginia in the early 1980s and returned to her hometown of Acton, Tennessee. She lived there until her passing. She was the wife of a Church of Christ preacher and the mother of five, the grandmother of seven and the great-grandmother of four.

I want to share my deepest condolences to Alice’s family and gratitude to her for supporting the work of speaking across the differences that divide us.

A caricature of Alice Moore drawn by the Charleston Gazette’s Taylor Jones.

*Credit: The Charleston Gazette*

Localities Continue To Help With Floods, Looking For More Assistance

The Kanawha County Commission allocated more money to aid flooded communities and is working with state and local officials to secure more.

Fifty-thousand dollars was approved for West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, or VOAD, to help rebuild personal bridges that were destroyed in the flood. Executive Director Jenny Gannaway requested $40,000 but the commission decided to give more.

“We’ve got families in hotels that we’re providing them. One in particular is a young mom with two small children. Her house was destroyed,” Gannaway said at the meeting. “So we’re trying to help her get into a rental property, close to her job. She lost her car and everything. So we are helping families like they get back in.”

Commission President Kent Carper said this is a one-time payment, but that this is an organization he is happy to continue to support.

“Two reasons why we’re going to do this, I think I’m speaking for everyone. Your reputation is just excellent,” he said. “You just know your business, and you’re effective at getting things done.”

The commission estimates the county has spent $200,000 so far and is putting in a request for reimbursement from the state. Carper said he is hoping to receive support from the state.

“I got several of these nice emails from the legislature, from senators wanting to know what they can do,” Carper said. “Well, they can pay the bill!”

The damage assessment process is ongoing. Homes, bridges, creeks, churches, fire stations, and roads were damaged during the flood. Eight homes were destroyed. Individuals and local communities are struggling to pay for the damage.

Federal aid from the Federal Emergency Management Authority (FEMA) could be on the way if the disaster qualifies. Commissioner Lance Wheeler said that they are working to gather and submit that evidence.

“I’ve been working with the state emergency management,” Wheeler said. “They tell us that they believe these numbers are very close to passing that threshold. And we’re positive at this moment that we will get that FEMA declaration. However, you never know how FEMA is going to operate until they do. So we’re just trying to do as much as possible collecting evidence.”

The commission is asking residents in areas affected by the flood to continue to fill out FEMA surveys because they will help their communities qualify for aid. One hundred and sixty-seven have been collected so far. Surveys are available online, by QR code, and there are paper surveys available at the VOAD center in Quincy.

The commission also voted to extend debris pick up to Friday, September 15 and allocated another $100,000 to the effort. During the weekend, the hours for debris clean-up will be 8 a.m. to – 2 p.m., and during the week 8 a.m. to- 3 p.m.

Wheeler said this is needed because residents are still working to clean out, and around, their homes.

“You know we have to remember that this isn’t just trash. This is personal belongings,” Wheeler said. “This is things that people had in their home, loved items that they had and now they have to get rid of,” Wheeler said.

Communities Work Together In The Aftermath Of Devastating Floods

“These are our people, we have to help.” WVPB speaks with community members affected by recent flooding in Kanawha County. The communities around Slaughter, Witcher, Fields, Kelly and Horse Mill Creek had six to nine inches of precipitation through Monday morning.

The National Weather Service received its first call about the flooding at 6:45 a.m. Monday after rain blanketed eastern Kanawha County through the weekend.

The storm intensified early Monday, by which point the soil was saturated and water was running off the mountain. The communities around Slaughter, Witcher, Fields, Kelly and Horse Mill Creek had six to nine inches of precipitation through Monday morning.

As the water moved down the hills and into creeks beds, it brought debris with it. The more water, the more debris.

Eventually those waterways backed up, and when the water had nowhere else to go, it went into people’s homes, cars, farms and gardens.

Ray Lyons’ home is off Kelly Creek in Mammoth, the location that saw the most rain during the storm Monday. Flood waters came within five feet of his house and flooded his acre-wide vegetable and fruit garden.

“It just came up so fast. Within two hours — and it just kept coming,” Lyons said.

He said during the rain he worked to keep debris, like logs and large mud deposits, out of the road in front of his house so that cars could get through — and escape the flooding.

Eventually the road became too deep with water to pass.

“A lot of people couldn’t get through, and that, oh, that was terrible,” he said.

After the flood, Lyon and his cousin worked with an excavator to dig debris out of the creek to help drain water off the land.

“State [crews] didn’t come up. But you know, I can take care of it, I have lived up this holler my whole life,” he said.

Further downstream from Lyon’s home, in the town of Cedar Creek, the water breached the banks and flooded the land around the confluence of Horsemill Creek and Kelly Creek.

Most of the damage in the area that was accessible Tuesday was a gravel parking lot. It had been completely stripped of gravel during the floods and was a muddy bog on Tuesday.

Ken Barton was on site, leaning against a dump truck with a cane in hand. He used to be mayor, but on Tuesday he was working with construction crews wearing bright yellow “Town of Cedar Creek” shirts and reflective overalls.

“You can see where all the mud and everything is,” Lyon said. “The water came out this way, pushed all this stuff over here.”

He said the mayor asked him and the rest of the crew to head down and help the state crews. His crews worked alongside state crews to clean up the damage and restore the banks of the creek.

“These are our people, we have to help,” Barton said.

Several homes were lost, and more were damaged in Monday’s flood.

On Monday, there were more than 700 calls and 22 water rescues. Some towns saw roadways turn into rivers. Access to these towns is still limited as of Wednesday, and crews are working to open roadways that were blocked by fallen trees and mudslides.

The damage assessment process began Tuesday, and officials are beginning the process of working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other national and state agencies to get money back to the communities to help with recovery and cleanup.