7th House district candidate Q&A: Charles Sheedy and Devon Tennant talk bullying, family violence and financial stress

When we visited northwestern West Virginia, students frequently said they’re worried about school and campus safety. Others interviewed in the region often brought up violence and threats, including bullying and family violence like domestic and child abuse.

As part of Mountain State Spotlight’s “Citizens Agenda” approach to covering this year’s elections, we asked candidates for the area’s 7th District House of Delegates seat about these issues. Charles Sheedy is the Republican incumbent and Devon Tennant is the Democratic challenger.

Sheedy, who retired from the Department of Transportation and served as a member of the Army National Guard and Reserve, was first elected in 2022. Tennant, a 19-year-old political science student at Bethany College, said he hopes to go on to law school.

Find out which House district you live in here .

These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.

Charles Sheedy

MSS: Residents wanted to talk about types of violence. Charities told me they often see single mothers who were once in abusive relationships. They also see grandparents caring for foster children. School-age students mentioned two recent suicides at Tyler Consolidated that followed bullying. I spoke to many young people who had also been bullied. Young people in high schools worried about school safety and college-age youth worried that struggling students who conceal carry could hurt them or their friends.

My question is, as a lawmaker, how have you worked to prevent violence like bullying and abuse, and what will you commit to doing in the future to prevent violence in schools and families?

Sheedy: For bullying and abuse, I feel that the parents are a lot of the cause of the bullying of their children, just for the simple fact of the severe drug use prevalent in our areas. We’ve not done a very good job of getting drug addiction under control in this state, either, and that is one of the things that I’m working at. Another thing is sexual predators being allowed in our elementary schools. I’m working on a bill right now that would prevent sexual predators from entering public schools altogether. So that’s going to definitely increase the safety and confidentiality of the students.

MSS : Can you clarify how substance use disorder relates to bullying?

Sheedy: I think it relates to it from just the simple fact that the other students recognize that this kid doesn’t have as good a clothing because the parents are neglecting the child, and that’s where I think a lot of it stems from.

There’s no pat answer there. I mean we have failed.

And bullying is just like drug addiction. A judge right now can sentence somebody to jail. That doesn’t stop their drug addiction. As soon as they get released from jail, they’re right back out on the street, right back at it. And jail time is not going to stop bullying either. It’s got to start at home.

And I don’t think we need legislation on something that the schools are capable of doing, making policy on our own, we don’t need any more legislation to put on the schools and the teachers to say no more cell phones in school.

It’s just like gun control. We already have gun controls that are effective in this country, if they were enforced. They’re not being enforced. So what good is putting more gun controls on anybody? It doesn’t do any good. Enforce what you’ve already got. Leave normal people alone.

MSS: People in these communities also frequently brought up their finances. Working people are struggling to make ends meet as they deal with rising costs. Charities are seeing more need. They didn’t see oil and gas jobs reduce the number of people who are relying on these charities. Some said that people are sometimes in predicaments that force them to use social programs. But some people said they believe people don’t want to work. I personally didn’t find anyone who admitted that in an interview. And lots of residents also spoke about low-wage jobs in the area. They said higher-paying oil and gas jobs have sometimes gone to out-of-state workers or require travel outside of the state.

As a lawmaker, what have you done and what will you do to help people boost their incomes, and what will you commit to doing to help people become more financially secure and self-reliant?

Sheedy: Well, the first thing this Legislature had done was start reducing the personal income tax to give more people more expendable income. And the second thing that we’ve done, we just did work on a three-year phase out for the income tax for senior citizens on our Social Security. So that’s two things that we’ve already done.

And a lot of younger people think that they need to start out making CEO wages, and don’t realize they have to start at the bottom.

Devon Tennant

MSS: Residents often wanted to talk about types of violence. Charity workers told me they often see single mothers who were once in abusive relationships. They also see grandparents caring for abused children removed from their homes. School-age students mentioned two recent suicides at Tyler Consolidated that followed bullying incidents. And I spoke to many young people who had also been bullied. Young people in high schools worried about school safety and college-age youth worried about concealed carry, and what that could mean for students who are struggling with mental health issues or are not in the right state of mind.

Please describe any of your previous efforts and your approach to preventing violence like bullying and abuse. And as a lawmaker, what would you commit to doing in the future to prevent violence in schools and in families?

Tennant: Well, for the first part of that question, I always supported anti-bullying efforts and, of course, public education in school settings. Currently, when it comes to violence, I support the local sexual assault center .

But what I would do if I become a lawmaker is I would push for immediate and robust action against bullying. I think our schools always have a no-bullying policy, but like the children who had committed suicide at Tyler Consolidated, even though it’s outside of my district, I think we see that bullying still happens, and bullying’s still very prevalent. And unfortunately, we’re not seeing a lot of action from our state Legislature. I don’t know of any anti-bullying bills that were put out or anti-bullying policies that were put out in this past legislative session. Nor do I know of any bills that are being introduced currently for the 87th Legislature, but, but what I can say is I know that I would definitely push for immediate and robust action on that topic.

Protecting our children should never be a secondary subject. It should always be at the forefront of conversations, especially right now in the trying times that we live in where social media is such a weapon that is used to attack, that other children use to attack children who may be different or maybe don’t fit in necessarily with the social norms of the times. And I think regardless of what your political ideology is or your political party, you should constantly be fighting for children, and especially on the topic of bullying.

And I know me personally, I had my share of being bullied in school, and I understand what it feels like to be bullied. So you know, I understand what these kids are going through, and unfortunately, some of these children end up taking their own lives, and I think it’s devastating, not only to the parents and families of these children, but also to the communities. Because you never think it’s going to happen until it happens, and once it happens, there’s nothing you can do about it other than help put more preventive measures in place and help children get the help that they really need.

MSS: I’m going to try to get across in my story that it really takes the community, because I spoke to a suicide prevention expert today who was talking about how bullying can be a risk factor, but that before it gets to that tipping point, there’s usually multiple stressors. Do you see it as something that the community needs to work on, other than just schools?

Oh, definitely the community plays a big, crucial role. Being more inclusive, I think, could really help our communities. Now, I’m not saying bend your way of thought just for the hell of it, but I think you know, people need to be more considerate of others, and I think that could definitely help. And I think if there were more community initiatives to help prevent suicide prevention, I think it would not only help children that contemplate suicide, but also many adults that end up taking their lives.

MSS: People in these communities frequently brought up their finances. Working people said they are struggling to make ends meet as they deal with rising costs, and charities are seeing increased need. Some said that people like single mothers are in predicaments that force them to use social programs. Some people said they don’t believe people want to work. I personally didn’t find anyone who said that in an interview, and lots of people also spoke about low-wage jobs in the area.

Please describe what you have done to help people with their finances in the past and your general approach to the problem, and what will you do to help people in this area boost their incomes and become more financially secure?

Tennant: I’m very young. This is the first office I’ve ever run for. This is not my first time in public service, but this is my start, so I haven’t been able to do very much besides help organize community events. But I’ll tell you what I would love to do. One of my first bills I’d like to introduce is to raise the minimum wage for tip earners. I haven’t decided on how much percentage wise, because we do have a lot of tip earnings in Wetzel and Marshall and Tyler counties.

I’d also like to see our state minimum wage have a 5% increase over five years. I definitely support any legislation that would raise the minimum wage. I’m a big proponent for organized labor, so anything that helps the working class or working families, I’m 100% for.

And to answer your question about single mothers and people and families on social programs and benefits, I do think that system is abused to an extent. People are raised on it, and people become dependent on that throughout their families and generations. But like you said, I’ve never heard anybody say they just blatantly didn’t want to work. I think it’s a mixture of being born into those programs.

For instance, my mother works for a social program, so I witnessed firsthand the people that really need the program, and then there’s some that don’t. But I also think that the government’s job is to assist those who cannot assist themselves. And so I do not judge anybody on using social programs. That’s what they’re there for. They’re there to help. And how we get people off those programs is that we pay them a livable wage. And unfortunately, in West Virginia, it’s hard to find a job that is steady that you can provide for your family a livable wage, and unfortunately, that is why people become dependent on social programs.

This isn’t new, and there hasn’t been any any legislation to help incomes for anybody under $100,000, because what we constantly see in the state Legislature is there’s constant bills that lower taxes for those in the 1%, the 3% income bracket, not the ones that are out working every day, taking our garbage, working for our water and sewer treatment plants, working in our coal mines and in our oil and gas fields, or our nurses and our teachers..

I think a great way to help bring West Virginia out of poverty is just to pay people a livable wage. And I think that also falls back into raising the minimum wage.

That’s another reason why a lot of people leave our state that are my age or slightly younger, slightly older, is because  it’s hard to live here. Yes, it’s cheap. But what’s cheap if you can’t have a livable wage, and you have to be dependent on social programs. And then I feel that a lot of people who are dependent on social programs are looked down upon as being lazy or not wanting to work, and that isn’t necessarily the case. It’s just the hand that they’ve been dealt in life. And I feel like, if we can give people a hand and help them pick themselves up by their bootstraps, I think our state would be in a better place.

7th House district candidate Q&A: Charles Sheedy and Devon Tennant talk bullying, family violence and financial stress appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight , West Virginia's civic newsroom.