MORGANTOWN – A voting measure and a handful of bills dealing with students and students’ healthcare cleared the House and Senate on Tuesday.
HJR 21 proposes a constitutional amendment to add this to the section dealing with who is and is not allowed to vote (Article IV, 4-1): “nor shall any person who is not a citizen of the United States be entitled to vote at any election held within this state.”
If adopted by the Senate, the resolution would go before voters in November.
Non-citizens voting is a hot topic on some conservative social media these days. USA.gov says this: “You can vote in U.S. federal, state, and local elections if you are a U.S. citizen (some areas allow non-citizens to vote in local elections only). … Non-citizens, including permanent legal residents, cannot vote in federal, state, and most local elections.”
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, said he’s not sure the amendment would change anything in practice in the state, but he’d support it.
The vote was 96-0 and it goes to the Senate.
HB 5084 would require age verification for the purchase of any tobacco or vape product, in the form of “a valid driver’s license, state identification card, or any valid and unexpired federally issued identification card such as a passport or military identification card.
The intent is to prevent sales of these products to people under age 18. Illicit sales are misdemeanors and the bill increases the fines for illicit sales.
Delegate Wayne Clark, R-Jefferson and a co-sponsor, mentioned his own family issues with underage vaping and the statewide challenge of sales to middle- and high-schoolers because there is no identification process.
He referred to some CDC figures, and a CDC report from last June says that from April 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023, a total of 7,043 e-cigarette exposure cases were reported representing a 32% increase. Among all exposures, 6,074 (87.8%) occurred among children aged 6 and up.
Clark said, “We need to do everything we can to get these products out of our kids’ [hands].”
It passed 94-0 and goes to the Senate.
HB 4940 is the only bill on our list that doesn’t deal specifically with minors. It deals with landlord-tenant law and says a squatter is not tenant and is not to be removed from a property via eviction.
Squatting is trespassing and removal of a squatter is handled under criminal law, it says. It passed 96-0 and goes to the Senate.
Two House bills concerning students were on second reading and were up for amendment.
HB 4863 creates the Patriotic Access to Students in Schools Act. It says that starting next school year, public school principals shall allow representatives of a patriotic society the opportunity to speak with and recruit students to participate in their organizations during school hours. The discussion would inform the students of how the patriotic society may further their educational interests and civic involvement to better their schools, communities and themselves.
Delegate Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, said it’s a great bill and offered an amendment to include private schools. Education chair Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, opposed it. He said state code prohibits the state from directing private schools on who they can allow into their schools for recruitment.
The amendment failed and the bill goes to third reading for passage.
HB 5179 is Jaycie’s Law and provides for excused absence from students who are parents.
Delegate Todd Longanacre, R-Greenbrier, was lead sponsor of an amendment to change the word “may” to “shall” in this line: “The schools may refer the parenting student to a “pregnancy help organization.” The amendment also would require the school to provide a list of those organizations, as defined in Chapter 16 of state code.
Young offered an amendment to that amendment to require also providing a list of women’s healthcare providers under Chapter 33 of code. Ellington opposed bringing in a new code section to the bill, saying it could lead to referrals to abortion clinics in border states.
Young argued that her amendment was about medical care not abortion, but it failed.
The debate then turned to Longanacre’s amendment and Pushkin said the bill is good but the amendment is too restrictive in compelling schools, and creates new liability for them, and an unfunded mandate.
The amendment was adopted in a voice vote with some opposition.
Young had more success with another amendment, to include students who are pregnant, which was adopted in a voice vote.
The amended bill is up for third reading and passage.
SB 504 would affect state code that says any teacher, principal, counselor, coach, other employee, volunteer of any private or public elementary or secondary school who has sexual contact with a student at the school, if convicted, is guilty of a felony.
The bill adds school resource officers to the list and broadens the scope to include a student at any school – not just the school the employee works at.
The bill adds one exception to prosecution to the list: any student enrolled in a secondary school and engaged in a wage-earning registered youth apprenticeship program as part of the Grow Your Own teacher pathway.
It passed 34-0 and goes to the House.
Email: dbeard@dominionpost.com
