Davis
Moats
CHARLESTON -– Supreme Court Justice Robin Jean Davis and Nineteenth Circuit Judge Alan Moats will hold seven regional meetings on truancy in the next two weeks.
The public is invited to all the meetings and no registration is needed. Anyone can attend any meeting, but each meeting is designed for people living in specific counties.
The meetings will be held:
* 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, Circuit Judge Gary Johnson's Courtroom, Nicholas County Courthouse, Summersville. This meeting is for people living in Braxton, Clay, Nicholas and Webster counties.
* 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 28, Courtroom No. 302, Logan Country Courthouse, Logan. This meeting is for people living in Boone, Logan and Mingo counties.
* 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, Berkeley County Judicial Center, Martinsburg. This meeting is for people living in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties.
* 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, Mineral County Courthouse, Keyser. This
meeting is for people living in Grant, Hampshire, Hardy and Mineral
counties.
* 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, Randolph County Courthouse, Elkins. This meeting is for people living in Pendleton, Randolph and Tucker counties.
* 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 4, Courtroom B, Raleigh County Courthouse, Beckley. This meeting is for people living in Fayette, Mercer, McDowell, Raleigh, Summers and Wyoming counties.
* 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 7, Main Circuit Court Courtroom, Mason County
Courthouse, Point Pleasant. This meeting is for people living in Jackson, Mason, Putnam and Roane counties.
Davis encourages parents, educators, social service workers, court officials, and anyone who works with children on a daily basis to attend. Davis has been designated by the Supreme Court to coordinate and expand judicial truancy programs in West Virginia.
She will be accompanied at all the meetings by Moats, who began an antitruancy and dropout program in Barbour and Taylor Counties when he realized he was seeing many of the same people appear before him in criminal cases who had appeared before him in truancy cases.
He did some research and discovered that more than 50 percent of Barbour and Taylor county students miss more than 10 days of school each year.
Davis and Moats already have held regional truancy meetings in
Charleston, Clarksburg, Morgantown, Lewisburg, and Huntington. Future meetings are planned Nov. 14 in Wheeling and Nov. 15 in Parkersburg.
The Wheeling meeting is intended for those living in Brooke, Hancock, Marshall and Ohio counties. The Parkersburg meeting is designed for those living in Calhoun, Pleasants, Ritchie, Tyler, Wirt and Wood counties.
Nikki Tennis, Director of the Supreme Court Division of Children's Services, is coordinating follow-up events and discussions from the meetings. She can be reached at 304-558-0145 or Nikki.Tennis@courtswv.gov.