WEST virginia legislature

2025 regular session

Committee Substitute

for

Senate Bill 54

By Senators Oliverio, Woelfel, Hamilton, Woodrum, Bartlett, and Deeds

[Reported March 20, 2025, from the Committee on Education]

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding a new section, designated §18-2-9b, relating to requiring all public schools located within this state to give age-appropriate instruction on the Holocaust.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 2. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.

§18-2-9b. Requiring age-appropriate instruction on the Holocaust.

All public schools located within this state shall give age-appropriate instruction on the Holocaust, the systematic, planned annihilation of European Jews and other groups by Nazi Germany, a watershed event in the history of humanity, to be taught in a manner that leads to an investigation of human behavior, and an examination of what it means to be a responsible and respectful person: Provided, That this instruction may not be given before grade six.