CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice signed a pair of bills into law Friday that supporters say will provide more protection for special needs students in classrooms throughout the Mountain State.
With a large crowd made up of parents and students on hand at the state capitol, Justice signed SB 261 and HB 4600. The bills were approved by state lawmakers in the recently completed 60-day regular legislative session.
SB 261 calls for more frequent viewing of the video from cameras that have been required in special education classrooms the last few years. A school administrator is now required to review the video for no less than 15 minutes, no less than every 90 days. The school system is also allowed to release classroom video to investigators and to attorneys representing students and their families.
HB 4600 makes it a felony for a person in a position of trust to verbally or physically abuse a disabled child, or to neglect to report abuse they witness. That has been a misdemeanor crime.
“We’ve really stiffened it up and made it really tougher,” Justice said about HB 4600. “Hopefully that will get the word across that we just can’t have that ever happen.”
The new laws come from recent classroom abuse cases being prosecuted in Kanawha County.
“There’s been horrific acts in regards to our special needs kids,” Justice said Friday. “These are our gifts and they’ve been sent from God to us and they need our protection.”
Charleston couple Craig and Beth Bowden went to bat for both bills during the session after their son, Trenton, 9, was abused at Holz Elementary in Charleston last September. Craig Bowden told MetroNews earlier this month that West Virginia now has the strongest law tied to classroom video recordings in the nation.
“West Virginia is the only state that requires these video cameras to be in every special needs classrooms,” he said. “Now it’s even stronger.”
The Bowdens were at Friday’s bill signings.
Justice said the overwhelming majority of special education teachers love their jobs and their students.
“We all know that the special ed classes are taught by and have aides that are for the most part the greatest of the great but we cannot afford one mistake, that’s all there is to it,” Justice said.
Criminal charges related to the Kanawha County cases continue to move through the court system. Trial dates are set for defendants charged in connection with alleged abuse at Horace Mann Middle School. Former Holz Elementary teacher Nancy Boggs has an April trial date but is scheduled to be in court next Monday to ask for a postponement. .