New Woodburn Community School

THE MONONGALIA COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD HAS BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

Why are the most stupid and asinine officials in charge of your children?

Judge James C. Stucky in Kanawha County Circuit Court today dismissed the case to block Eastwood Elementary from the Mileground.

We will appeal.

• WV state Rule 6200 forbids it. This state policy bans new school sites that are not “located away from hazards and undesirable environments, such as: a. … arterial highways, heavily traveled streets, traffic and congestion b. Noise, toxic gas escapes from … odoriferous plants or industries … e. … bulk storage plants for flammable liquid, and property zoned as industrial f. Situations where a combination of factors such as those presented above could contribute to the possibility of human entrapment…”

• Each “county board” of education is “subject to…the rules of the State Board” of Education according to WV state Code: §18-5-13. Authority of boards generally. These rules include “rule number 6200 of the West Virginia Board (Handbook On Planning School Facilities).” 

The Mileground site violates the mandatory provisions of the Legislative Rule §126-172 and State Board Policy or Rule 6200, which the SBA administers. The safety of new school sites are specifically regulated by this doctrine “126CSR172 – 0 – Title 126 – Legislative Rule – Board of Education – Series 172 – Handbook On Planning School Facilities (6200)” 202.06 “School Site Planning…[and] Location”:

“For the safety of students, [any and every] new school site shall be located away from hazards and undesirable environments, such as: a. … arterial highways, heavily traveled streets, traffic and congestion b. Noise, toxic gas escapes from … odoriferous plants or industries … e. … bulk storage plants for flammable liquid, and property zoned as industrial f. Situations where a combination of factors such as those presented above could contribute to the possibility of human entrapment…”

The intended Eastwood Mileground site is an egregious mass violation of multiple site prohibiting provisions above. The site is a dangerous, potentially lethal, even predictably lethal mass of insoluble violations.

Similarly breached is another Legislative Rule:

“§126-42-7. County Board of Education Responsibilities. 7.6. Facilities. 7.6.1. County boards shall ensure that facilities meet the standards set forth in W. Va. 126CSR172, WVBE Policy 6200, Handbook on Planning School Facilities.”

West Virginia Code §29A-1-2(d): ” ‘Legislative Rule’ means every rule, as defined in subsection (i) of this section, proposed or promulgated by an agency pursuant to this chapter. Legislative Rule includes every rule which, when promulgated after or pursuant to authorization of the Legislature, has (1) the force of law, or (2) supplies a basis for the imposition of civil or criminal liability, or (3) grants or denies a specific benefit.”

If the Eastwood Mileground school siting proceeds, and if a severe or deadly calamity to a student occurs in the prohibited features at and around the new school site, then punitive and civil liability damages should be imposed against the top Monongalia County School Officials and the top WV School Building Authority officials, along with multi-million dollar civil liability damages against the various educational agencies.

The unusual dangerous features at and around the Eastwood Mileground school site are prohibited by state Rule for a reason. One does not have to be a prophet to predict potential disaster or likely disaster on and around those deadly highways.

The officials and agencies involved do not have the right, moral or legal, to roll loaded dice with children’s lives. It’s potentially lethal. It’s wrong. And given an essentially predictable calamity, it’s criminal. In West Virginia:

“Involuntary Manslaughter involves the accidental causing of death of another person, although unintended, which death is the proximate result of negligence so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life.”

How green can it be to site children at an accident prone and polluted intersection prohibited by state mandate? Why is Mon Schools so mean?

Oh, that’s right, Mon Schools Superintendent Frank Devono is on record as a strong advocate of corporal punishment in schools. Hitting kids with heavy paddles, blocks of wood. That is “spanking” in schools. In 1987 the Charleston Daily Mail (Jack Deutsch, February 18) reported that Frank Devono

the president of the state Association of Elementary School Principals…complained that opponents of corporal punishment always emphasize that paddling is a negative experience.

“Where is the positive? Why is it always the negative?” asked Frank Devono, president of the principals association.

We don’t make up this idiocy, folks. We just report it. Yes, adults hitting children with blocks of wood is such a “positive” experience for everyone involved. Of course. Who could imagine otherwise? Not Devono.

Devono spoke in favor of the bill, which would remove the 12-hour “cooling off” period. Under current state law, principals must wait 12 hours after warning students of a paddling before carrying out the punishment.

The bill was defeated, fortunately. And seven years later, sanity prevailed even moreso when the state of West Virginia banned corporal punishment – hitting kids with paddles – from schools altogether.

But the intended mean green school on the 705/Mileground intersection goes thumping forth under the iron hand of Superintendent Devono, courtesy of a WV School Building Authority grant. The state Supreme Court needs to step up and enforce the state Rules and state Codes that ban such hazardous and potentially lethal sites.