First Lady drives worthy school initiative

Feb. 22—Thumbs up to Communities in Schools now active in all 55 counties.

A pet project of West Virginia First Lady Cathy Justice, Communities in Schools is a national initiative specifically designed to bring community resources into the school directly to at-risk students in an effort to remove both academic and non-academic barriers that may keep them from attending school.

The community resources may address basics such as food and clothing, or provide counseling services, encourage family engagement, enhance life skills or meet physical health needs.

In Wyoming County, funded with American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief monies, 13 of 14 schools have CIS site coordinators. The only school without an onsite coordinator is the Wyoming County Career and Technical Center, and those students are served in the high schools.

American Rescue Plan funding is federal money provided in response to the economic downturn created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding, however, dries up this year.

Working closely with each student's parents and family, school coordinators try to address whatever an individual student's needs may be — attendance issues, academic decline, medical and dental services, food, adequate clothing, shoes, a shower, a washer or dryer, or personal hygiene products such as soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste.

In some instances, the electricity may have been turned off in a student's home and the coordinator will try to work out a solution to get it restored, among numerous other services.

The coordinators also maintain stockpiles of needed items — food, clothing, shoes, hygiene products — in the schools so that at-risk students can "shop" for items that many children take for granted.

Coordinators fill a lot of roles — from parent figure to teacher to role model — as well as build relationships with area businesses, churches, and organizations to help provide for student needs. The businesses, churches and organizations provide the items for the schools' food pantries and other stockpiled items.

First Lady Justice added another dimension to the program in West Virginia — Friends with Paws, which provides certified therapy dogs to schools.

The service dogs are placed in schools, within the Communities In Schools initiative, "where students are disproportionately affected by poverty, substance misuse, or other at-risk situations, and are in the greatest need of a support animal," according to officials.

The service animals can help people feel more at ease, improve their mood, relieve anxiety, and remove social barriers.

Here's hoping the West Virginia Legislature sees the many, many benefits of this program and continues to fund individual school coordinators for the program with state monies.

By Mary Catherine Brooks

of The Wyoming County Report

for The Register-Herald

----We could not have said it any better than Tom Hunter, AARP West Virginia spokesman.

"Taxing Social Security undermines the purpose of Social Security," he told West Virginia Watch for a story published prior to the House of Delegates unanimously passing legislation on Thursday that would eliminate the state's tax on Social Security benefits. "This was a program that was designed to lift seniors out of poverty. It wasn't a program that was designed to fund state governments."

And that is exactly right. House members deserve a thumbs up for getting this bill through the sausage-making process in their chamber.

Now, the Senate needs to follow suit.

----Late Thursday afternoon, the Crown Act — a bill that aims to prohibit discrimination based on hair textures and protective hairstyles historically associated with Blacks, advanced out of Senate Judiciary in a close 10-7 vote.

Committee members — a majority of them, anyway — were wise to pay attention to precedent. The U.S. Supreme Court banned discrimination based on hair back in the 1980s. The bill also makes clear that West Virginia's Human Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination based, in part, on hairstyles.

Thumbs up to those who pushed this through: Charles Trump, R-Morgan; Mike Caputo, D-Marion; Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell; Ryan Weld, R-Brooke; Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley; Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier; Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur; Mark Hunt, R-Kanawha; David Stover, R-Wyoming; and Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha.

Thumbs down to those who voted against it: Mike Azinger, R-Wood; Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha; Chandler Swope, R-Mercer; Patrick Martin, R-Lewis; Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson; Mark Maynard, R-Wayne; and Jay Taylor, R-Taylor.

Why such regard has been a bridge too far for these and other lawmakers speaks to their innate and ugly prejudices.

By J. Damon Cain, editor, The Register-Herald