A West Virginia mother is facing charges in the death of her 14-year-old daughter who was found “emaciated to a skeletal state.”
WOWK-TV reported, citing court documents, that Julie Miller of Morrisvale was charged after her daughter was found dead in a bathroom “emaciated to a skeletal state.”
A family member told law enforcement that the teenager had an eating disorder and had not been eating for months, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the TV station. The document also said the 14-year-old could not function on her own for almost a week due to her physical state.
The criminal complaint, according to the TV station, said the girl’s “clear and distinct physical problems” showed that her mom had not gotten her help in at least four years, which caused her death. The TV station reported that the girl had been outside two times in four years and had not been to school since 2019 or 2020.
How in hell can your 10-14yo not go to school and nobody lifts a finger? School’s not mandatory in W. VA? Somebody’s been watching closely enough that they know how many times the girl left the house in four years, but nobody thought intervention was called for?
Homescooling is a thing in backward countries like US.
Even with homeschooling there are still mandated standardized tests to make sure children are being taught at an equivalent grade level, or portfolio reviews required to be performed by a licensed teacher to go over schoolwork the child did for the entire year prior. W
It’s a little disingenuous to make the claim that homeschooling is “backwards” somehow, as in areas of the country with terribly funded public schools, if parents are committed, they can absolutely provide a better education than their children would receive otherwise. This situation is the exception, not the rule.
It takes people at the school caring and then truancy officers having time and funding to investigate.
Same thing with calling family services if the kid is going to school but clearly not well; someone actually has to let the people in charge of family services in the area know… they have to have enough to clearly prove there’s a problem that the parents aren’t addressing… it has to be a problem they have authority over… etc
It’s not unheard of for these things to happen unfortunately.
Also sounds like they’re really overwhelmed in WV this year
https://www.wvnstv.com/news/solving-west-virginias-truancy-problem-takes-work-on-all-fronts-attorney-says/
Those are pandemic years too. Sooo not surprised if they fell between the cracks for a while. It was a wild time. PTSD-Chihuahua.png