On Thursday, June 6, 2024, the Governor’s Office held a press conference to address issues surrounding the death and investigation of Boone County teenager, Kyneddi Miller. If you aren’t familiar with the case, you can read the detailed article with updates by WOWKtv.
If you are familiar, you’ll know the story has been in the WV news cycle every week, if not every day, for the past two months. Several WV media outlets sent numerous FOIA requests to state agencies trying to learn more information, such as whether CPS had received reports about this child previously and if so, had they followed through with an investigation. When many of the FOIA requests were denied, a common reaction from news audiences was “What are they hiding?”
There have been many reports and updates written about this case; it’s not the purpose of this article to go through a timeline of the events. Rather, it's to share observations about the press conference that occurred on Thursday, as well as WV Superintendent Michele Blatt framing the issue as a problem with homeschooling guidelines, which several news agencies have echoed.
The full hour and a half press conference with Governor’s Office Chief of Staff, Brian Abraham, Department of Human Services Secretary, Cynthia Persily, WV State Superintendent, Michele Blatt and State Police Chief of Staff, Maj. James Mitchell is posted below.
Brian Abraham did most of the talking, explaining why certain FOIA requests were denied and highlighting a change in the reporting procedures for State Police. They were directed, for future practice, to exclusively use an 800# to make reports. This begs the question of why going in-person to the nearby CPS office in Boone County, directly after a well check at the Miller home, is less effective…or, in this case, not effective at all. Why?
Do the employees not have access -or training- on their computer program to intake verbal reports linked with that 800#? Especially from people they work with routinely, such as the State Police?
Abraham stated that the State Troopers made the well visit to the Miller home in 2023 after receiving a call from a distant relative of the Miller family “who was either a school teacher or principal from another county” saying they were concerned about the child because she “doesn’t get out much”. (Timestamp 28:07)
After the well visit, the Trooper who had assessed Kyneddi remarked that he thought it was “odd” that she had such a fear of covid and germs and didn’t want to be around people. State Police then drove to the CPS office in Boone County to share this information with workers. This was verified by GPS and a voice recording of the officer. There was neither memory nor documentation by the CPS office in Boone that the State Trooper had made this informal report.
It should be noted, that many young people in our state had an excessive fear of covid during 2020-2022, especially if they were frequent viewers of Legacy media and Governor Justice’s repetitive reports, citing death counts, hospitalizations, urging vaccination (despite the evidence that children were the least likely group to be seriously ill from covid) and telling them to distance, mask-up and get vaccinated…for grandma’s sake. Remember that?
There was an excellent question and follow up by an unidentified reporter at the 59:19 minute mark in the conference, asking whether or not the previous visits by CPS to the Miller home in 2009 and 2017 would not have provided a red flag that something was amiss in the household with regard to adequately caring for children. Abraham disagreed for the most part, reiterating that no reports had been specifically filed on Kyneddi, stressing that her name appears on the files only because she was a resident in the home and previous reports were unfounded.
Department of Human Services Secretary, Cynthia Persily answered a portion of the reporter’s question by stating that the department has a number of resources for mental health. She went on to say:
“We have those resources posted at every DHHR office, they are on our website and we will work with the State Police so that in the future, as part of their training, they know what those additional resources are.”
She outlined a variety of materials the department offers, even using slides to share national crisis & suicide numbers as well as the West Virginia 211 program.
Sensibly, the reporter follows up with the question “..but, your staff was aware of all these resources, …did your staff take those resources seriously enough with regards to Kyneddi,…should [someone] have been referred to those other resources?”
The pause at the end of his question is a telling moment because even though the question was addressed to Persily, there’s a hesitation and she looks over to Abraham to answer for her. Why, indeed, did no one at the CPS office in Boone have the wherewithal to share even one of these resources with the State Police that day? Or, take the information and make the bridge to those resources themselves? It’s as ludicrous as going to an ER with a laceration and the doctor saying, “Sorry, we only treat broken bones and cardiac events here” …while standing next to a medicine cabinet with bandages and sutures.
Another interesting moment that left questions was when State Superintendent, Michele Blatt replied to a reporter asking about more stringent guidelines for homeschoolers by saying,
“…our counties are bound by state code and what they are allowed to do when it comes to a homeschool student. So, as we mentioned before, you know, parent choice is important and we have a situation with students that are homeschooled that there’s only that, that kind of takes any authority away from the public school system. …we are really in a climate right now that unless we increase some of the guardrails that we have in legislation and then put into policy it makes it really hard to hold any accountability there.” (Timestamp: 1:07:07 )
Other than acknowledging Kyneddi Miller was on virtual schooling for a year during the school lockdowns through the pandemic in 2020, no comment was offered about the ramifications of isolating children who are forced to learn at home and the accountability of the Department of Education for this decision. No comment was offered, even in light of an avalanche of medical opinions and studies describing the harms this would bring to children—some published during the pandemic. It was simply glossed over as part of the timeline during the press conference.
A reporter also asked about Kyneddi’s attendance record in public school but was promptly told that this information is confidential. One of the key questions, however, is why didn’t the Boone County Board of Education follow up with this child?
In 2021, Miller’s mother sent a letter of intent to homeschool, after the year of virtual learning through public school. Assessments are required of homeschoolers, to outline their course of academic accomplishments each year. It is mandated by the state that these assessments are turned in to the county board of education for grades 3, 5, 8 and 11. When Kyneddi’s assessment failed to appear, it was the responsibility of the Boone County BOE to take action.
Unfortunately, Kyneddi fell through the cracks of this safeguard and no one from the board office filed a truancy petition or, apparently, even looked into the matter of why they didn’t receive an assessment from the Miller family.
According to WV State Code §18-8-1, county superintendents already have the authority to stop homeschooling if certain requirements are not met. From this code:
“..That the county superintendent may, after a showing of probable cause, seek from the circuit court of the county an order denying home instruction of the child. The order may be granted upon a showing of clear and convincing evidence that the child will suffer neglect in his or her education or that there are other compelling reasons to deny home instruction.”
Is Ms. Blatt unaware of this WV code? Does she encourage our counties to make this a priority? Why did her line of reasoning go directly to working with the legislature to strengthen the “guardrails” for homeschoolers when the public schools are already NOT following the law with regard to safeguarding homeschooling?
Have our West Virginia boards of education proven they serve the interest of protecting children?
When we have boys watching girls undress in locker rooms and boys taking competitive spots from girls in sports? What response have any of our boards of education given to the countless multitudes of children being bullied? Of teachers leaving the state because their hands are often tied with regard to school discipline? Has the WV Department of Education been held accountable for allowing gender ideology research on children in public schools under passive parental consent?
Senate President Craig Blair, who recently lost his re-election bid, made a public statement with regard to this case. A portion of which states:
“This case has highlighted that our current system of checks and balances has cracks. To that end, we will work with the Governor’s Office, the Department of Education, the Department of Human Services, and the State Police to discuss ways that we, legislatively, can improve our regulations related to homeschooled children to ensure that no children suffer this same outcome.”
How about improving enforcement of the laws already on the books, hold West Virginia Boards of Education accountable and stop using homeschooling as a scapegoat?
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