Tag: Sexual Abuse

Sexual Violence Awareness Advocates Ask Legislators To Change Existing Laws

Advocates from across the state gathered at the state capitol Thursday to bring attention to sexual violence.

It was Sexual Violence Awareness Day at the Capitol. The Foundation for Rape Information and Services, or FRIS, was there to educate legislators and the public about problems in the system.

Nikki Godfrey, the assistant state coordinator with FRIS, said the organization is focused on two issues this legislative session: updating the offense definition of extortion and exemptions for marital rape.

Senate Bill 175 updates offenses of extortion and attempted extortion. 

“Which provides additional protection for if folks say a student is being told that they can’t get their grade unless they do a sexual favor for a professor,” Godfrey said. “So there’s just a gap in our code, when we’re looking at coercion, and being able to provide that protection for an individual.”

House Bill 4982 would remove marriage from the definitions listed for crimes of sexual offenses.

“The other one has been the talk of the town the last year, and that’s really just providing equal protection for individuals who are married in our state,” Godfrey said. “So right now, our definition of sexual contact says that it can’t be protection for folks who are married. So if someone forces or threatens or, you know, says there’s bodily harm possible, and they engage in sexual contact with someone, it could be charged, but not if the person is married.”

Godfrey said there was a lot of confusion surrounding marital rape during last year’s legislative session.

“I think last year, there were just a lot of misconceptions around it and confusion about what that meant, you know, how that affects people who are married,” Godfrey said. “And you know, when we look at forcible compulsion, there has to be a threat of bodily injury. So it rises to the level that you know, if someone can report that it could be investigated and charged.”

Godfrey said after conversations with lawmakers in the upper rotunda, FRIS is feeling hopeful.

“I really feel like just addressing some of the misconceptions and providing some examples to folks of what that could look like and why it is important to individuals in West Virginia to add that protection,” Godfrey said. “So I feel like that folks are really understanding and hearing it.”

On the Senate floor, Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, spoke in favor of designating Feb. 1 as Sexual Violence Awareness Day.

“West Virginia ranks fifth in the country for lifetime prevalence of contact sexual violence, 61.7 percent are females,” Rucker said. “Out of the 47 percent of assaults committed by acquaintances in West Virginia, 82 percent are by someone known by that victim a direct relationship to that victim in West Virginia, one in six women and one in 21 men will be victims of attempted or attempted or completed sexual assault.”

Senate Education Chairwoman Amy Grady Discusses Bills, Committee Focus For Session

As the legislature settles into the business of lawmaking, committees represent a crucial step in the process. The Senate Education Committee gathered in the Senate Finance Committee meeting room to discuss two bills Tuesday morning.

As the legislature settles into the business of lawmaking, committees represent a crucial step in the process. It’s where legislators can study and discuss a bill in depth before returning it to the floor.

The Senate Education Committee gathered in the Senate Finance Committee meeting room to discuss two bills Tuesday morning.

Senate Bill 187 creates a new criminal offense of sexual contact, intrusion, or abuse of students by school employees regardless of the student’s age.

Sen. Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, is the vice chair of Senate Education, and the lead sponsor of the bill. He said he was inspired by an incident in his home county where school employees were involved with 18-year-old students, but no crime was committed due to the students’ age. He said people in positions of trust must face consequences for abusing that trust.

The bill was sent on to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senate Bill 124 authorizes the state Board of Education to create a child sexual abuse and sexual violence prevention program and in-service training in child sexual abuse prevention.

Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, is the Senate Education Committee Chair. She says although such incidents aren’t common in schools, it is important for students to be aware that something wrong is happening.

“Making sure those kids understand what’s happening to them and understand resources they can have, and people that they have, that they can go to if something that maybe they don’t realize is wrong, because a lot of times these predators will train these kids to think this is normal,” she said.

A revised version of SB 124 was reported to the Senate at large, and will be taken up on first reading Wednesday, Jan. 18.

Grady is a fourth grade teacher, and as such is the first full-time public school educator to serve as Chairman of the Senate Education Committee since 1970.

“I’m in the trenches, so to speak,” she said. “My experiences as a classroom teacher are really, really important. And it’s really hard to work on something in public education if you’ve never really been on the other side of it. It gives me a unique perspective that I’m really excited about putting to work to make sure that we can make some positive changes.”

Grady says she has a lot of priorities for the Education Committee this session, but tries to take time to meet with other teachers and administrators. She says she meets every week with Superintendent David Roach to ensure the legislature and Department of Education are working in tandem.

“We have to work together to make sure we’re on the same page. And I think that’s really, really important. But the number one focus being student success, every single thing that I focus on in my committee is focused around the students. And does this help our students in any way? And that should be the main focus of everybody.”

Grady says she and the superintendent have already worked together on their shared priority of early childhood literacy and numeracy.

Another concern for the chairwoman is teacher pay. She says she’s seen firsthand the competition from border states with higher pay for existing teachers, but attracting new teachers is also a concern.

WVU President: No Recollection of Ohio State University Doctor Accused of Sex Abuse

West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee responded Friday to a report from Ohio State University that says a team doctor sexually abused students for nearly two decades.

 

Ohio State University released an investigative report Friday that says Dr. Richard Strauss sexually abused 177 male students between 1979 and 1997.

 

According to the investigation, university officials knew about the abuse but did nothing to stop it.

 

Investigators said Strauss pleaded with OSU administrators to keep his job as the accusations mounted against him. That included sending a letter in 1997 to then-president Gordon Gee.

 

Gee, whose first stint as OSU president was from 1990 to 1997, now oversees West Virginia University in the same role.

 

“As has been conveyed to the investigators at Ohio State, I have no recollection of Dr. Strauss or any reports regarding him. I have always taken any allegations brought to my attention very seriously and will continue to do so,” Gee said in an emailed statement.

 

Among the other then-OSU officials is U.S. Rep Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Jordan, who was a wrestling coach at the university from 1987 to 1995, said Friday the report confirms that he was unaware of the allegations against Strauss.

 

Former OSU wrestlers claimed last year that Jordan knew or must have known of the reports of sexual abuse.

 

“I do know Rep. Jordan, but only as a congressman from the district which includes one of the campuses of Ohio State as I worked with him in that capacity during my second term,” Gee said Friday in his statement.

 

Strauss was fired from his positions as a team doctor and physician at the student health center in 1998.

 

He committed suicide in 2005.

 

 

 

Judge Asks to See Evidence Before Sentencing School Director

A Harrison County judge has asked attorneys on both sides to turn over evidence before he sentences a woman who has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in connection to her running of a Salem boarding school for troubled youths.

The Exponent Telegram reports that Chief Judge Thomas A. Bedell recently requested to see the evidence in the case of 69-year-old Susan Gayle Clark, who directed the now-closed Miracle Meadows School.

Clark is to be sentenced April 1 after pleading guilty to misdemeanor child neglect creating a substantial risk of injury, misdemeanor failure to report by a mandated reporter and misdemeanor obstructing a law enforcement officer.

Clark says she regrets not firing an employee accused of putting a student in handcuffs. She also has admitted to not properly reporting an accusation of sexual abuse or sexual assault.

House Seeks to Strengthen Sexual Assault Laws at Schools

Members of the House Judiciary Committee are revisiting the state’s mandatory reporting law after an incident at Capital High School in Charleston. The school’s principal, Clinton Giles, resigned from his post after reports that he failed to notify law enforcement of a sexual assault on the high school’s campus. Giles was reportedly notified of the January 26th incident by a counselor, and he now faces misdemeanor charges in Kanawha County Circuit Court. The incident now has lawmakers looking to update a forty year old law dealing with sexual assaults. But first, the committee considered a bill that aims to reign in the receptions lawmakers are invited to while in Charleston for legislative meetings.

House Bill 2022 prohibits certain political fundraising activities for members of the Legislature during certain periods of time before, during, and after the Legislature is in session. It also provides that existing misdemeanor penalties would apply if the law were broken.

Delegate Patrick Lane of Kanawha County is the sponsor of the bill. He says this bill addresses a long standing tradition during annual legislative sessions.  That tradition of nightly receptions serving free food and drinks to lawmakers. 

“I think the perception is a negative perception, that if we have a fundraising reception for a campaign on Tuesday and then there’s a bill that affects that, some particular industry on Thursday that we vote on, it’s unseemly,” Lane noted, “And I think, in an effort to make sure that there’s trust between the public and the elected officials, I think it’s a pretty simple fix to that, to just say that we as members of the legislature are gonna hold ourselves to a higher standard, and we’re gonna say we are not going to fundraise or accept money from campaign contributions, while we are here making decisions on legislation.”

No action was taken on House Bill 2022 during Thursday morning’s meeting.

The second bill on the agenda was House Bill 2939, relating to requirements for mandatory reporting of sexual offenses on school premises involving students.

“To better explain this, I’m going try and start with a little bit of background; explain what current law is, and then I’ll go into explaining a little bit what the original bill is, and then the reason behind the committee substitute. Since at least 1977, there’s been a reporting requirement for teachers or, in general, reporting of abuse, neglect matters for children; if they’ve been abused or neglect, and that’s defined in chapter 49. The requirements do extend to teachers and school personnel. In particular, the law states that a person over the age of 18, who receives a disclosure from a credible witness or who observes any sexual abuse, or sexual assault of a child, shall immediately, and not more than 48 hours, report that to the police and or to DHHR, Child Protective Services. That’s been the existing law for quite some time. The difficulty is, is when you get into the definitions of sexual abuse or sexual assault. Under existing law, sexual abuse is limited to abuse by parent, guardian, or custodian, so if you connect the dots here, the only reporting requirement that exists for a student that may or may not have been sexually abused on school is if that occurs by the parent, guardian, or custodian. Hence, there’s a little bit of a loophole in the law with respect to reporting requirements. So, taking current scenario under existing law, if you have a situation where an individual who is, a report comes to a teacher that their friend has been sexually assaulted on campus, and it was done say, by another student. Under existing law, there’s no requirement for that teacher to report that incident.” -Marty Wright, Counsel to House Judiciary

Marty Wright, counsel to House Judiciary, explained the bill and the reason the law needed some updating.

The bill brought some major discussion among the delegates, from what counted as inappropriate touching between two high school aged children, to how much a teacher would be held accountable in regard to various situations, or to how far the definition of what counted as school premises reached.

By the end of the meeting, three amendments were proposed that addressed these situations, and the bill was passed unanimously in committee.

House Bill 2939 now goes to the floor for its consideration.

W. Va. Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against School Officials in Mingo County

The West Virginia attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Mingo County school officials claiming they brushed aside allegations that two male students sexually abused female classmates.
 
The lawsuit also claims school officials interfered with a state police investigation of the incidents.
 
The lawsuit says administrators at Burch Middle School retaliated against the girls for reporting the allegations.

 
Defendants named in the 32-page complaint are Burch Middle School Principal Melissa Webb, Burch Middle School Vice Principal Deanna Maynard, guidance counselor Hester Keatley, teacher and athletic coach Melvin Cunningham, Mingo County Schools Superintendent Randy Keathley, the Mingo County Board of Education, two un-named juveniles
and their parents.
 
The lawsuit alleged the abuses occurred on a school bus, at the school and on a field trip.
 
School officials and a state police spokesman did not immediately return telephone messages Thursday.
 

The lawsuit filed Wednesday asks Mingo County Circuit Court to prevent further abuse and retaliation, and to bar defendants from interfering with the police investigation.

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