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The Good, the Bad and the Stupid Pt. 4

Good: SB 489, establishing that “All county boards of education shall make feminine hygiene products, as defined in this section, available to female students, attending public school, in grades 3 through 12. The boards shall make the feminine hygiene products available at no cost and in a discrete manner to students in the identified population when the female students do not otherwise have access to such feminine hygiene products.” It has already passed the Senate and is now being considered in the House of Delegates. We give SB 489 two thumbs up. There are few things in life ...

As politicians obsess over kids’ genitals, useful bills languish

We’ve repeatedly used this space to debunk some of the myths and scare-tactics surrounding transgender individuals. However, the falsehoods persist and they’ve taken root in the Legislature, which has proposed multiple anti-transgender bills. One in particular is steadily advancing: HB 2007, to ban gender-affirming surgeries and gender-altering medications for anyone under 18. We won’t waste our limited space reiterating everything we’ve covered before.  Instead, we’re dedicating today’s space to the legislative malfeasance surrounding HB 2007 — lousy legislative ...

Questions remain about altercation

The Morgantown community has understandably been shaken by the video that went viral over the weekend, showing an altercation between a Morgantown Police officer and a young man that resulted in the young man being pinned to the sidewalk. (The young man ended up with abrasions on his face.) Monday evening, Morgantown PD released body camera footage of the incident. Along with the footage, the MPD released a statement that officers were responding to a domestic violence call at Fat Daddy’s Bar and Grill just before midnight Thursday, Feb. 2. Callers alleged a young man, later ...

Can I-79 testbed prove solar can work for West Virginia?

Whenever someone pitches the idea of solar power in West Virginia, there is invariably someone else who immediately responds, “That will never work here.” We may finally be able to settle the argument once and for all. West Virginia University engineers will be partnering with First Energy and developer High Technology Foundation to build a “solar testbed” at the I-79 Technology Park in Fairmont. The project will be funded by a $2.3 million U.S. Department of Energy grant. WVU’s Anurag Srivastava, professor and chair of the Lane Department of Computer Science and ...

The Good, the Bad and the Stupid Pt. 3

Good: SB 124 to require schools to create an age-appropriate dating/sexual violence prevention program for grades 7-12. There are a lot of things the Legislature is doing wrong when it comes to public education, but there are a handful of things it is doing right. This is one of them. That late-middle-through-high school age group starts to explore what it means to have a relationship — to have a “real” boyfriend, girlfriend or partner. But they may not have good role models in their own lives, and healthy examples in pop-culture are scarce. This is the perfect time to teach ...

Legislature attacks public education

The hyper-conservative Legislature has resumed the attack it started last year on West Virginia’s public schools. Some attacks are more subtle than others, but most of them are aimed at allowing complaints or even lawsuits against public schools or their employees. There are, of course, the headline-dominating “anti-racism” and “anti-stereotyping” bills (of which there are multiple iterations). Four of them, to be exact. There are two virtually identical “anti-stereotyping” bills in the House (HB 2347 and HB 2940). Then there is the “Anti-Racism Act” (SB 130) that ...