Voices of West Virginia Academy

Note: this excerpt is from an email sent by its author, Sean McWilliams, to WVA parents.

Dear parents,

I’m writing to inform you of the latest concerning events at WVA, since past emails have shown that the majority of parents are completely in the dark about what is actually happening. I realize some of you prefer to remain in the dark, but I sincerely hope that most of you care enough to want to be informed. None of the facts here are in dispute. 

During the last board meeting at which my wife spoke, the administration would not allow my daughter Ella (the one who John and Heidi Treu repeatedly sexually harassed, see westvirginiaacademy.com) to enter the building, so I drove to WVA, she walked out to my car along with her little sister, and we left. Holly Honeycutt then called the state police and claimed (falsely) that I trespassed, and also asserted (falsely) that I had previously trespassed. A state trooper showed up at my house while I was making dinner, pounding on the door and screaming “State Police!”, terrifying my seven-year-old (the one who Holly left to figure out a 5 ½ hour exam by herself, see westvirginiaacademy.com) into tears in the process. Once he verified that I never trespassed, neither before nor since (incredibly they just took Holly’s word for it initially), he left. Contrary to what I know has been stated by school administrators, I have never been cited nor charged with any crime, trespassing or otherwise, nor am I under investigation for one. 

On the other hand, members of the WVA administration are currently under investigation by:

1.) the Monongalia County Police

2.) the WV State Police

3.) the WV Ethics Commission

4.) the WV Professional Charter School Board

5.) West Virginia University

6.) the US Office of Civil Rights

7.) Child Protective Services

8.) OSHA

The police investigations 1.) and 2.) center around the harassing emails and texts that many of us have received. For example, the night of the last board meeting, after my wife spoke, an anonymous person (whose writing was nonetheless very familiar…) sent AI-generated pornographic pictures of my wife to us and to several other random emails, at least one of which apparently belonged to a child. To that person, you should understand that every message you send provides a tremendous amount of motivation for us to keep informing current and prospective parents about what is happening at this school. Items 3.) and 4.) relate to the dozens of violations of the charter agreement, the WVA bylaws, and WV state law. Items 5.) and 6.) relate to the violations of federal law related to my daughter’s civil rights under Title IX. Item 7.) relates to child endangerment, which I’ll describe below. Item 8.) relates to the gross failure to inform parents of previously unhealthy air quality and the possible persistence of those conditions.

The administration also continues to lie about the enrollment. This should be apparent to anyone who has listened to John repeatedly give the hard sell to current parents, begging them to officially re-enroll while claiming that they might lose their spots or be waitlisted. Any parent who did not explicitly inform the school of their intent to unenroll their student received an email that assumed they were re-enrolling for next year, even if they had not done so despite John’s repeated begging. This was done very intentionally, because the administration will then report the “enrollment” as all of the students who are currently enrolled, plus any new students who enrolled for next year, as John did during the last board meeting when he came up with a farcical enrollment number in the 300s. This number is of course an outrageous overestimate, as it ignores the many students who are currently still enrolled but do not plan to return. In reality, the total number of students actually enrolled for next year was recently tallied at 240, with more than 30 current students planning to enroll elsewhere next year. This tally will undoubtedly drop further once parents hear about the most recent events at the school. WVA is required to maintain an enrollment of 250 to remain a charter school. Therefore, if the WV charter school board makes any effort to assess the true enrollment of the school, they should revoke the charter. This would result in WVA becoming a private school, so that in addition to ignoring all of the issues we’ve been bringing to your attention, you’ll also have to pay a sizable tuition for the privilege of having your kids mistreated.

Since my last email, a number of other incredibly worrying events have also transpired. Two kindergartners are lucky to be alive. The first one simply walked out of the building and made it all the way to Walgreens before anyone noticed he was gone. The second fell asleep on the school bus, which was then locked and left unattended. That student was then marked absent, and no call went home because the administration previously chose not to invest in the automated system used by all other local public schools to notify parents of absences. The student woke up, completely alone, and thankfully had the strength and presence of mind to get a window open, climb out and drop to the ground without serious injury, and walk two blocks to the school. CPS was called and a case is currently open (intake number 420302). Continuing their pattern of complete disregard for children’s safety, no steps have been taken by the administration to ensure that similar events do not happen again; they simply fired the bus driver and have tried to keep parents in the dark.

The administration also fired or will soon be firing 6 staff members, including Connie Eli, who was previously voted into the top 5 Best of Morgantown teachers. Firing Prof. Eli “for cause”, without ever specifying what cause, highlights the undeniable fact that the administration doesn’t value the quality of your children’s education when making staffing decisions. Rather, they value absolute obedience to the Treus above all else. Your kids can go drink out of a toilet bowl for all the Treus care (or literally out of a crusty shower head, see westvirginiaacademy.com); as long as their teacher doesn’t bother the Treus in any way (even about concerns for children’s safety, as Prof. Eli did), or ever dare to ask any questions, then that teacher is fine with the Treus. 

We can add these fired teachers’ testimonials to all the ones that were previously provided (see westvirginiaacademy.com). Add these stories of children being trapped in a bus and left alone to wander Morgantown to the earlier stories of kids being left alone for hours, made to clean bathrooms with bleach until they vomited, etc. Add these examples of harassment of parents who speak up to the earlier examples of anonymous harassing messages, like the one threatening to show up at the home of a former staff member while they were away and their spouse was home alone with their baby. Honestly, this whole situation moved past ridiculous a long time ago. It really shouldn’t matter if you and your kid have avoided problems so far, because it’s only a matter of time before your luck runs out.

– Sean McWilliams