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W.Va. Legislature Considers Bible-Themed Electives In Public Schools

West Virginia public high schools could soon offer their students elective courses on the Bible.

The West Virginia House of Delegates voted 73 to 26 in favor of House Bill 4780 Tuesday afternoon, which would allow county boards of education four options to offer students as an elective social studies course. The courses could involve Hebrew scriptures, the Bible’s New Testament, a combination of the two, or the Bible’s Old Testament.

State senators are slated to vote in favor of Senate Bill 38 on Wednesday, a similar bill that lawmakers amended to instead allow schools to offer courses featuring multiple “sacred texts or comparative world religions.”

According to the Legislature’s website as of Tuesday afternoon, the Senate still will be allowed to amend the bill before passing it on Wednesday.

Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, told other House delegates on Monday language differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill likely will lead to a conference committee to resolve the differences after bills cross chambers.

An effort by Dels. Mike Pushkin from Kanawha County and John Doyle from Jefferson County, both Democrats, to amend the bill in a similar way to the Senate, failed on Monday.

‘An Appropriate Way’ To Look At The Bible In Public Schools?

According to the House Bill, the purpose of this bill is to “teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding the development of American society and culture, including literature, art, music, mores, oratory, and public policy.”

Del. T. Kevan Bartlett, R-Kanawha, is the bill’s lead sponsor in the House.

“The bill provides a statement … that the bible is not unwelcome here,” Bartlett told delegates on Tuesday. “The bible is not inappropriate here. There is an appropriate way, in a public school setting, to look at the bible in an academic way.”

Both versions of the bill say a county school district isn’t allowed to require that a student take these courses.

In his explanation of the bill to the full House of Delegates on Tuesday, Ellington said county boards that choose to create these electives will have to submit their coursework plan to the state Department of Education for approval.

Messaging Concerns

“It is a clear violation of the West Virginia Constitution,” Del. Doyle, D-Jefferson said on the House floor Tuesday, regarding Article 3-15 of the state’s constitution, which guarantees religious freedom.

“If we pass this bill, we will be saying to the rest of the country … the message that will be heard is only Christians are welcome in West Virginia,” Doyle went on. “We must not send that message.”

Several Republican proponents for the bill and Del. Marshall Wilson, I-Berkeley, insisted if done right, these courses could comply with state and federal law.

“It makes me uncomfortable, and I wanted to just speak from my heart,” said Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia. Hansen told delegates on Tuesday he’s Jewish, a religious minority in the state Legislature.

Hansen referred to testimony some lawmakers heard Monday morning during a public hearing for House Bill 4780, from Malcolm Cohen, a third grader at Piedmont Elementary School in Charleston.

“My little brother and I are the only Jewish kids in our school,” Cohen said Monday. “One day last year at my after-school program, the teachers taught us about Jesus and made us pledge allegiance to the Bible. It made me feel very worried and confused. I felt like I was doing something wrong.”

According to Cohen’s testimony, the school separated him and his brother from the rest of the group at the after-school program, after Cohen’s mother spoke with the school. Cohen said he felt excluded.

“I believe this has an impact on Jewish kids and kids of other faiths,” Hansen said Tuesday. “I understand this bill is not written to force anyone to pledge allegiance to the Bible, but these things happen, and kids like Malcolm are made to feel like they don’t belong.”

Challenging One’s Beliefs

Pushkin questioned on Tuesday how possible it really is to separate theology from academia in these proposed courses. Pushkin also is Jewish.

While Bartlett said he believed it was possible depending on a teacher’s way of handling the bill, Del. Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, agreed with Pushkin that theology will be a significant part of these classes. But, to Steele, that only makes the bill more educational.

“One of the reasons that I would urge support for the bill today is because of the tenacity displayed by both of them,” Steele said of Pushkin and Bartlett, after a debate between the two delegates regarding the bill on Tuesday.

“I think that [Del. Pushkin] is well reasoned in his opinion. He knows his facts and he knows why he believes the way he believes,” Steele said. “I think one of the problems we’re experiencing in our society today is we’re raising a generation of children that cannot put on that same display. Because they’re never challenged about their beliefs. … But learning, and adapting and being able to defend your position, as well as hear the position of another, without anger or malice coming up, is a central issue in growing into a mature adult.”

Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, told delegates Steele was “1000 percent right” Tuesday afternoon, with one caveat.

“I find it very odd that we missed an opportunity to include other texts in this teaching of history,” Hornbuckle said. “Because without those other texts, we’re actually denying our kids, for that same reason, to look at other things, to examine everything else, to be able to learn and see what they think and be able to enrich themselves.”

Earlier this session, the House also passed a “Religious Liberties in Schools Act” on to the Senate for consideration. As of Tuesday evening, the bill was waiting in the Senate Education Committee for consideration, with a second reference to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

W.Va. Bill To Bar Hair Discrimination Advances In State Senate

A committee of West Virginia lawmakers agreed Monday evening to recommend a bill to the full Senate that would prohibit discrimination based on hair type.

Senate Bill 850, originating in the Judiciary Committee, would add protections for “hair textures and protective hairstyles historically associated with a particular race” to the West Virginia Human Rights Act. This section of state code already prohibits discrimination regardless of race, gender, age and other characteristics.

Protective hairstyles include braids, locks and twists, according to the bill, which also has been dubbed the “Crown Act.”

Similar legislation in the House of Delegates was referenced to the House Government Organization Committee in January but never considered.

Senators heard from Beckley resident Tarsha Bolt before voting on the bill. She talked to the committee about an incident earlier in the school year, when a basketball coach barred her teenage son from playing because of her son’s dreadlocks.

According to Bolt, her son missed three games because he wouldn’t change his hair.

“If you guys are familiar with dreadlocks, you would know that it’s just a natural way of maintaining the texture of his hair,” Bolt told lawmakers on Monday. “It’s not something you can just cut out or rip out.”

The discrimination occurred despite the fact, she added, that her son was allowed to play on the same school’s football team and participate in the JROTC program earlier that year, with the same dreadlocks.

“It was just not right. Why was he targeted?” Bolt asked. “Why were his dreadlocks targeted? He’s a good kid. He has good grades. He has the skills to make the team. Why should his hair have him benched? And why should he be bullied to strip himself of his identity?”

As the Beckley Register-Herald reported following the meeting, Wood County Sen. Mike Azinger, a Republican, was opposed to the bill. As of Tuesday he was the only members of the Senate Judiciary Committee not appearing on the bill as a co-sponsor.

Calling the proposal a “sticky situation,” Azinger asked the committee to consider replacing it with a study resolution instead.

The motion failed.

Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, said the bill was “appropriately authored” by the committee counsel.

“I think that as it relates back to the race aspect [of the West Virginia Human Rights Act], I think that it is proper,” Weld said.

Sen. Mark Maynard, R-Wayne, agreed with Azinger, saying he wanted to hear from the coach Bolt mentioned and sporting groups like the Southern States Athletic Conference.

Sen. Richard Lindsay, D-Kanawha, said the bill was about more than the Beckley incident.

“This is something that applies across the spectrum to all types of individuals,” Lindsay said.

In the House of Delegates, Del. Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia, was the lead sponsor behind the House version of the bill. She called the Senate’s action a success.

“Discrimination and hate have no home here, there or anywhere,” Walker said in an interview Tuesday morning. “It’s not just about a high school student and a coach. It is about a landlord and a tenant. It is about an employer and an employee. It’s about an employee trying to go up the chain, but who is stuck because of how their natural hair [is], and the texture of their natural hair.”

The Senate was scheduled to consider any potential amendments to the bill on Tuesday, Feb. 25, before voting on whether to pass the bill to the full House of Delegates for consideration on Wednesday.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

W.Va. House To Consider ‘Ban The Box’ Bill

West Virginia could be one of more than 30 states to “ban the box” and prohibit certain employers from asking applicants about their criminal history, after lawmakers considered House Bill 4905 Friday evening.

The legislation from Del. Sammi Brown, D-Jefferson, would only apply to public employers, on a state or county level, and it excludes public positions dealing with law enforcement, community safety, civil service, and those involving direct interaction with minors or the elderly.

The “box” in her bill, and several others that have been and are being considered nationwide, refers to an area on most applications asking applicants to indicate whether they have a criminal history or not.

Under House Bill 4905, employers still can ask about criminal records, but they have to wait until the applicant has finished applying and received a job interview. Applicants also can sign a waiver, authorizing employers to conduct criminal background checks.

Brown said the legislation was introduced “to level the playing field and address recidivism.”

“[It’s] not to create a veil, not to be dishonest in their application, but instead to be judged by their qualifications and what they can bring,” she said Friday. “What we’re after here is, again, trying to get people back into the workforce.”

The House Judiciary Committee agreed to send an amended version of the bill to the full House of Delegates with a favorable recommendation. Delegates changed the bill to include a provision allowing employers to publish which criminal charges would make an applicant ineligible.

Del. Geoff Foster, R-Putnam, was one of the delegates in Judiciary who voted against passing the bill.

“I think this bill comes about [it] from the wrong angle,” Foster said in committee. He told other lawmakers the bill “makes it so the denial is moved further down the line.”

Instead, Foster suggested lawmakers change rules that they and past Legislatures have created, making it easier for employers to turn away applicants who have been involved in the criminal justice system.

Del. Tom Fast, R-Fayette, also opposed the bill on Friday, saying he thought the best way to help West Virginians with a criminal history would be to work on improving measures to expunge certain offenses.

Del. Kayla Kessinger, R-Fayette, agreed with Brown and is co-sponsoring the bill. She said she supported the legislation because it’s a relevant issue applicants with a criminal history face daily, even if their records are related to an incident that occurred when they were younger.

“And that felony is disqualifying them from even having the opportunity … to prove their worth and their skill and their ability to bring something positive to our public employers,” Kessinger said.

The bill moves on to the full House of Delegates for consideration. Lawmakers in both chambers have until Wednesday, Feb. 26, to get their bills on final reading if they want their legislation to cross over into the next chamber for consideration.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

W.Va. Bill On Data-Gathering Center Has Some Safeguards For Civil Liberties; Some Say Not Enough

The West Virginia House of Delegates is closer to a vote on House Bill 4176, which would add the existing West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center into state law.

The center gathers and evaluates information on potential threats of terrorist activity for state and federal agencies, most prominently including the federal Department of Homeland Security.

The bill and the fusion center itself — which has existed and operated since 2008 in West Virginia through an executive order from the governor’s office — have come under fire several times this session for potential violations of civil liberties and its extremely closed-door aspects. However, delegates have said the bill will increase legislative oversight of the fusion center.

During a public hearing Thursday morning, the American Civil Liberties Union asked lawmakers to spend more time on the bill.

The ACLU’s Executive Director of the West Virginia chapter, Joseph Cohen, cited an eight-year-old report from a U.S. Senate subcommittee on investigations, which found fusion centers nationwide typically were not effective in detecting real threats.

A Wood County man who said the governor’s office used the fusion center to spy on him last year also spoke at the public hearing. Fusion center leaders and the Cabinet Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs, which oversees the center, denied the allegations.

The House Judiciary Committee passed an amended version of House Bill 4176 Thursday afternoon, including additions from the Veteran Affairs and Homeland Security Committee, which reviewed the bill weeks earlier.

Some of the changes include protections for whistleblowers, who would inform an outside organization if the fusion center was participating in illegal activity, and the creation of an oversight committee that will monitor otherwise closed off operations at the fusion center.

At the same time, the bill exempts the fusion center from complying with Freedom of Information Act requests, withstanding any requests necessary to investigating whistleblower accusations, and it introduces felony and misdemeanor charges for employees that leak information.

Fusion centers nationally date back to 2001, when President George W. Bush signed an executive order establishing intelligence-gathering and analyzing centers to investigate and prevent potential terroristic threats, following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Former Gov. Joe Manchin authorized the creation of a West Virginia fusion center in 2008. Today that center exists under the jurisdiction of DMAPS.

If the Legislature passes House Bill 4485 or Senate Bill 586 to divide DMAPS between the governor’s office and the state Division of Homeland Security, the state intends to send the fusion center to the latter agency.

Del. John Shott, R-Mercer, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said the bill should be voted on by the Full House of Delegates sometime next week, before bills are required to cross chambers on Wednesday, Feb. 26.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

ACLU, Citizens Request Lawmakers Work More On Bill For Data-Gathering Fusion Center

This is a developing story and may be updated.

As lawmakers consider a bill to establish the existing West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center in state code, civil liberty advocates are calling on the Legislature to use this as an opportunity to add more privacy and civil liberty protections for West Virginians.

The West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center dates back to 2008, when then-Gov. Joe Manchin signed an executive order authorizing a group to gather and evaluate information on threats of terrorist activity for state and federal agencies, most prominently the Department of Homeland Security.

Since then, the group has existed through executive orders from the governor’s office. By proposing the center to be added to state law through House Bill 4176, some lawmakers have said at previous committee meetings they hope the West Virginia Fusion center will operate under more oversight.

Nationally, fusion centers were established by an executive order from President George W. Bush following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, to investigate potential terroristic threats. Today, fusion centers exist in all 50 states.

Cabinet Secretary Jeff Sandy from the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety (DMAPS) spoke highly of fusion centers at a public hearing for House Bill 4176 Thursday morning, hosted by the House Judiciary Committee. Delegates were scheduled to hear and vote on whether to pass the bill to the full House Thursday afternoon after 3 p.m.

DMAPS currently oversees the state fusion center.

“That executive order forming the fusion centers across our country has saved American lives,” Sandy said. “Why? Is it because of the word ‘fusion center’? It is not. It is because fusion centers brought people together.”

Since then, Director Joseph Cohen of the American Civil Liberties Union in West Virginia said the center’s mission has morphed from monitoring terrorist threats to investigating all kinds of crime.

Cohen also attended the public hearing on Thursday. He argued that the Legislature should study the proposal rather than rush into passing a bill that would change state code.

“Slow down, have a real opportunity to bring in the experts on this stuff. If we’re going to have a fusion center, let’s do it right,” Cohen said at the public hearing.

Cohen cited a study in 2012 from a U.S. Senate subcommittee on investigations in which bipartisan group of lawmakers learned fusion centers weren’t yielding significant information for counterterrorism efforts.

After 13 months of reviewing reports from fusion centers that were submitted to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2009 to 2010, senators said they “could identify no reporting which uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot.”

Robert Cornelius, a recently ousted Wood County Republican Chair, said Thursday he believes the West Virginia Fusion Center is being used to spy on political opponents, himself included.

“I’m a longtime critic of our current governor,” Cornelius told delegates at the public hearing. “As chairman of the Wood County Republican Committee, our group voted unanimously to support his impeachment, of the governor, in June of 2018, citing his refusal to attend work.”

Cornelius said he learned a month after that decision that there were pictures of himself at a security guard shack for the Columbia Gas building in Kanawha City, with a notice to call the fusion center if guards recognized him on the property.

This is what prompted Cornelius to post on Twitter in 2019 about the fusion center. Cornelius said in July he received a file of information regarding himself collected by the fusion center. He said his wife, who works in the state Capitol, was handed the information by the governor’s general counsel, Brian Abraham, even though Cornelius insisted the governor’s office had his contact information.

“There’s a greater issue with internet and electronic surveillance by the current executive,” Cornelius said, referring to the governor. “Of his employees, state employees and citizens more generally. Beyond concerns with fusion [centers], I would encourage those interested in our civil rights to examine the current and former roles of employees, the governor’s senior staff, and the scope of duties and activities.”

Fusion center officials disputed claims from Cornelius Thursday morning. That included DMAPS Cabinet Secretary Sandy and his deputy secretary Thom Kirk, who has experience direction the West Virginia fusion center.

“One of the things that we do at the fusion center is, any information that comes in there is vetted, to see whether it’s factual or not,” Kirk said. “I can tell you that if that is what Mr. Cornelius said, that’s false. I can bet that right now. He, to my knowledge, has never been investigated by the West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center.”

Earlier this year, the governor requested an additional $1.9 million from the Legislature to fund a Narcotics Intelligence unit that would operate under the state fusion center, as well.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

W.Va. House Passes Religious Liberties in Schools Act

Following an incident in Mineral County last year, a bill to create a Religious Liberties in Schools Act has passed the West Virginia House of Delegates in a 76 to 22 vote and will move on to the state Senate for consideration.

House Bill 4069 would require local school districts to adopt a model policy, similar to the one recommended in the legislation with an objective of ensuring that schools aren’t discriminating against or sponsoring the expression of any particular religious viewpoint.

“By starting in the schools and making sure students know their civil rights matter at that age, this could make them the civil rights leaders of the future,” Del. Gary Howell, R-Mineral, said last Wednesday after the bill passed the House Education Committee. Howell is the bill’s lead sponsor.

He says the legislation was prompted by an event in October, when members of both football teams at a game in Frankfurt were photographed holding an impromptu prayer before the game.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit advocating for the separation of church and state, wrote a letter criticizing the Mineral County school board for the incident.

“This was the students expressing their first amendment right, freedom of religion,” Howell said.

The bill stipulates that model policy should include “neutral criteria” for the selection of student speakers at school events. The bill recommends selecting students based on “positions of honor,” such as student council officers or football team captains.

Many of the delegates who spoke against the bill are Democrats on the House Education committee that considered the bill last week. They argued this criteria interferes with local control.

“The Legislature does not need to be telling our county school systems who can speak at graduations, who cannot speak, [or] for how long,” Thompson, a teacher in Elkins, Randolph County, told other Delegates on Tuesday. “I just worry [that] we’re going to start getting into this weird area, where we’re not going to let students with disabilities or special needs speak … I don’t like that. I like letting the schools make that decision.”

The legislation also prohibits a student from including any remarks that are “obscene, vulgar, offensively lewd or indecent,” with all of these terms being defined according to a school district’s interpretation.

According to Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, this language isn’t specific enough.

“There’s nothing really detailing who is going to be the one to determine what would be offensive, lewd or anything like that,” Hornbuckle said during an interview on Friday.

Earlier last week, Hornbuckle proposed a couple amendments dealing with language and speaker requirements, both of which failed in the House Education Committee.

“I just think it’s a bad policy, because it also means that what Huntington High might deem as offensive, or lewd, let’s say Pendleton county might not,” Hornbuckle said. “So, there’s really no consistency there in the law across the state.”

Another thing the bill addresses is how a school should assess a student’s written, oral and artistic assignments. According to the bill, “students may express disagreement and offer opposing views regarding any issue based on religious beliefs.”

The bill was amended on Tuesday by request of Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, to add that this provision does not excuse students from answering a question correctly just because the content “is counter to the religious beliefs of the student.”

Del. Jim Butler, R-Mason, disagreed with the amendment. He said on Monday he proposed changing the bill to include a similar provision, but one with the “acknowledgement that sometimes science is either wrong or it changes as circumstances change or evidence changes.”

A request from Del. Mick Bates, D-Raleigh, on Tuesday to send the bill to the House Judiciary Committee for a second opinion failed, despite arguments from the bill’s opponents that the first amendment already allows the freedom of religious expression in public places.

Although the event that inspired the legislation dealt Christians praying before a football game, Howell said last week his bill is meant to help students of all religions, minority or majority, by protecting them from discrimination.

When asked last Wednesday whether Howell supports other proposals dealing with discrimination — namely a bill in his committee to prevent discrimination based on hair type, or several bills to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation — he said he had yet to read them.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.