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| Date: From: Subject: | 1/31/2012 4:48:16 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Your Action Needed IMMEDIATELY to Defeat Dangerous Legislation |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== Your Action Needed IMMEDIATELY to Defeat Dangerous Legislation Dear West Virginia Members and Friends, On Friday, February 3, 2012, the West Virginia House Education Committee will review and vote on HB 4309. This is a dangerous piece of legislation that would create serious problems for home educators and all West Virginia parents. The bill language says that "a child who is physically healthy and presumed safe is a neglected child if the child is habitually absent from school" and would give new powers to judges over West Virginia families. We need you to take action immediately to defeat this bill. Today, truancy is a criminal offense under West Virginia Code 18-8-2 which charges parents with a misdemeanor if they do not send their children to school as required by law. Current law already provides school officials and courts enough power to handle truancy. This includes authority for a magistrate to order children to attend school and to even order parents to accompany the child to school for the whole day for as many days as the judge sees fit, in addition to fining and potentially jailing the parent. Because these statutes are criminal, however, parents have important due process protections. Schools and courts also must follow specific procedures when there are problems with school attendance. These procedures make sure that everyone understands what is expected of them and what can happen when there are problems. Criminal procedures provide higher protection than the West Virginia child abuse code. If the legislature passes HB 4309 and creates a new definition of neglect in the abuse code, more families will be bullied in family court with fewer protections. These families will be subject to the whims of judges who could order just about anything they want, including the removal of children from the home just because children, in their opinion, haven't been to school enough. Judges should not have this authority, and it is crucial that all freedom-loving West Virginians tell the legislature "no" to giving this unfettered discretion and power to judges in our state. Action Requested 1. Email the entire Education Committee by using the email string address provided below. 2. If your delegate is a member of the Education Committee, call them as a constituent and tell them to oppose HB 4309. 3. If your delegate is not a member of the committee, please call as many of the members of the committee as you can to tell them to oppose this legislation. If your last name begins with A-I call members of the committee 1-8; if your last name begins with J-R call 9-16 and if S- Z call 17-25. 4. Please forward this to other like-minded individuals because this is a freedom issue that concerns all West Virginia parents. Please give them the following message in your own words by phone and email: Please vote against HB 4309-- this bill is unnecessary and would give too much power to judges over West Virginia families without proper legal protection. Truancy laws today already provide the government with plenty of power to address children who are not attending school. Current law also protects parents, children and school personnel by giving specific procedures under which they are to act. By placing a new definition of abuse and neglect in the law, judges would have unbridled discretion to decide in their own subjective opinion whether a child is truant and what to do about it--including removing children from their homes. Children should not be taken away from their parents just because they don't go to school enough in the subjective opinion of a judge. The proposal does not take into consideration other circumstances that would legitimately explain a child's absences, such as emotional or mental problems, or even if a child were removed from school to be homeschooled. Please vote no on this dangerous and unnecessary legislation and protect West Virginia families from being hauled into courts with less due process prosecutions. Parents and schools not judges should be addressing the issues of school attendance for children under the current law which is sufficient. Contact Information: Email string address (copy and paste into the "to", "cc" or "bcc" block of an email - may not work for all email programs): mary.poling@wvhouse.gov; brady.paxton@wvhouse.gov; waltduke47@aol.com; linda.sumner@wvhouse.gov; anthony.barill@wvhouse.gov; denise.campbell@wvhouse.gov; mike.caputo@wvhouse.gov; kjcraig@aol.com; gerald.crosier@wvhouse.gov; lawrencefordelegate@hotmail.com; ron.fragale@wvhouse.gov; justin.marcum@wvhouse.gov; d.perry@wvhouse.gov; rickymoye@wvhouse.gov; dave.pethtel@wvhouse.gov; ralph.rodighiero@wvhouse.gov; stan.shaver@wvhouse.gov; peggydonaldsonsmith@wvhouse.gov; armstead@wvhouse.gov; joe.ellington@wvhouse.gov; marty.gearheart@wvhouse.gov; amanda.pasdon@wvhouse.gov; ruth.rowan@wvhouse.gov; brian.savilla@wvhouse.gov; harold.sigler@wvhouse.gov Individual Committee Contact information: 1.Mary M. Poling - Chair Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3265 Business Phone: (304) 457-2206 E-mail: mary.poling@wvhouse.gov 2. Brady Paxton -vice chair (D - Putnam) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3337 Business Phone: (304) 340-3337 E-mail: brady.paxton@wvhouse.gov 3. Walter E. Duke - minority Chair (R - Berkeley) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3151 Business Phone: (304) 582-4755 E-mail: waltduke47@aol.com 4. Linda Sumner (R - Raleigh) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3180 Business Phone: NA E-mail: linda.sumner@wvhouse.gov 5. Anthony Barill (D - Monongalia) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3173 Business Phone: NA E-mail: anthony.barill@wvhouse.gov 6. Denise L Campbell (D - Randolph) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3145 Business Phone: (304) 636-1391 E-mail: denise.campbell@wvhouse.gov 7. Mike Caputo (D - Marion) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3249 Business Phone: (304) 363-7500 E-mail: mike.caputo@wvhouse.gov 8. Kevin J. Craig (D - Cabell) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3350 Business Phone: (304) 522-5757 E-mail: kjcraig@aol.com 9. Gerald L. Crosier (D - Monroe) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3188 Business Phone: NA E-mail: gerald.crosier@wvhouse.gov 10. Ron Fragale (D - Harrison) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3114 Business Phone: (304) 622-3609 E-mail: ron.fragale@wvhouse.gov 11. Tiffany Elizabeth Lawrence (D - Jefferson) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3152 Business Phone: (304) 340-3152 E-mail: lawrencefordelegate@hotmail.com 12. Justin Marcum (D - Mingo) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3126 Business Phone: NA E-mail: justin.marcum@wvhouse.gov 13. Ricky Moye (D - Raleigh) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3162 Business Phone: (304) 255-2932 E-mail: rickymoye@wvhouse.gov 14. David G. Perry (D - Fayette) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3117 Business Phone: NA E-mail: d.perry@wvhouse.gov 15. Dave Pethtel (D - Wetzel) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3158 Business Phone: (304) 775-4221 E-mail: dave.pethtel@wvhouse.gov 16. Ralph Rodighiero (D - Logan) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3154 Business Phone: (304) 784-8881 E-mail: ralph.rodighiero@wvhouse.gov 17. Stan Shaver (D - Preston) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3146 Business Phone: (304) 568-2696 E-mail: stan.shaver@wvhouse.gov 18. Margaret Donaldson Smith (D - Lewis) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3123 Business Phone: NA E-mail: peggydonaldsonsmith@wvhouse.gov 19. Tim Armstead (R - Kanawha) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3240 E-mail: armstead@wvhouse.gov 20. Joe Ellington (R - Mercer) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3172 Business Phone: (304) 425-3800 E-mail: joe.ellington@wvhouse.gov 21. Marty Gearheart (R - Mercer) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3179 Business Phone: (304) 320-0879 E-mail: marty.gearheart@wvhouse.gov 22. Amanda Pasdon (R - Monongalia) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3153 Business Phone: (304) 340-3153 E-mail: amanda.pasdon@wvhouse.gov 23. Ruth Rowan (R - Hampshire) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3157 Business Phone: (304) 340-3157 E-mail: ruth.rowan@wvhouse.gov 24. Brian Savilla (R - Putnam) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3141 Business Phone: (304) 340-3141 E-mail: brian.savilla@wvhouse.gov 25. Harold Sigler (R - Nicholas) Capitol Phone: (304) 340-3143 Business Phone: (304) 651-3555 E-mail: harold.sigler@wvhouse.gov Background If passed HB 4309 would: > Define parents as child-abusers if their children appear physically healthy but miss what a judge thinks is too many days of school; > Make it too easy for Child Protection Services and Judges to remove children from a home even if the children were not abused or neglected; > Put too much power in the hands of unaccountable judges with vague definitions and broad powers--What is habitually absent? Who defines physically healthy? > Could result in the removal from their homes children who are having non-physical problems, such as depression or other emotional issues, and force them to attend public school against their parents' will; > Affect home school families if they do not file their homeschool paper work properly, such as a late notice of intent or not complying with the 14-day waiting period before pulling children out of public school to homeschool; > Not take into consideration children's special physical, mental, emotional or other needs > Treat truancy as child abuse and places parents in Family Court were the judges have virtually unlimited powers and where parents have fewer due process protections; > Create a system of enforcement that just does not care about the individual needs of a child and the efforts that parents are putting in to meeting those needs. HB 4309 is unnecessary because state law already provides sufficient authority to punish parents and for schools and attendance directors to fashion remedies to deal with habitual truancy under the criminal code. Thank you for taking action TODAY! Without your support we could not stand for freedom in West Virginia! If you or someone you know is not a member of HSLDA, will you consider taking a moment today to join or recommend us and support our work defending individual families threatened by government officials and protecting homeschooling freedom for all? Join now at: http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=13431 Mountaineers Always Free, Michael P. Donnelly, Esq. HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> You can get a little latte or a lotta legal. With our new payment options, you can join HSLDA for as little as $10/month, less than the price of a cup of coffee a week. 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