Government · Charleston, WV Metro · October 1, 2026
WV settles for $4.4M after CPS failed to rescue abused adopted children
West Virginia Watch reports that a Kanawha County judge approved a $4.4 million settlement for five children who were kept in slave-like conditions by their adoptive parents, Jeanne Kay Whitefeather and Donald Lantz, in Sissonville, West Virginia. Neighbors repeatedly reported the abuse to Child Protective Services, but the agency produced no documentation of follow-up contact beyond leaving a card at the door; law enforcement discovered the children, some living in a shed without water or a bathroom, in October 2023. Whitefeather and Lantz received maximum prison sentences. Attorney Dante' diTrapano, who represented the children, says CPS later interviewed the children within earshot of their abusers and calls the system 'broken.' The Morrisey administration, which took office after the case, says it fired the employee involved and has restructured oversight. Del. Hollis Lewis plans to reintroduce the Child Captivity Prevention Act, requiring families moving to West Virginia who homeschool to notify the Department of Human Services — the couple had homeschooled the children before the abuse was discovered.
Source: West Virginia Watch
Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
Scripture repeatedly commands God's people to defend the fatherless and the oppressed, and a government agency's documented failure to act on repeated warnings is a serious breach of that basic duty — regardless of who holds office. Bible-believing Christians who care about the sanctity of innocent life should watch this case closely. At the same time, the proposed legislative response — mandatory state notification for homeschooling families — raises a separate and important question for Christian parents: whether expanding state oversight of homeschooling is the right remedy for a bureaucratic failure to act on existing reports, or whether it shifts burden onto law-abiding families instead of fixing the agency that failed to respond.
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. — Psalm 82:3
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From the book
The family is a pre-political institution. It existed before the state, and it holds authority the state did not grant and cannot lawfully take. When Christians defend the family they are defending the first institution of God against the encroachment of Caesar.
— Chapter 18, “The Jurisdictional Mandate”
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