In one of my previous posts, I mentioned Raylee’s Law, which has been introduced in the West Virginia Legislature every year since 2019. This year, Raylee’s Law takes the form of HB 3499: to prohibit the homeschooling of children in certain circumstances (e.g., credible suspicions or actual convictions of child abuse/neglect or domestic violence). This past week, Raylee’s Law was amended into another homeschooling bill, HB 2777.
Let me introduce you to Raylee Browning.
Raylee was 8 years old when she died the day after Christmas in 2018 from sepsis caused by bacterial pneumonia.
She was living with her biological father (Marty Browning Jr.), her father’s wife (Julie Titchenell Browning, who was Browning’s girlfriend at the time), and the wife’s sister (Sherie Titchenell), as well as the wife’s three biological children. Raylee, of the four kids in the household, was singled out for abuse.
According to Julie Browning’s eldest daughter, who lived in the home with Raylee, Sherie Titchenell frequently “punished” Raylee, even when she hadn’t done anything that seemed to warrant punishment. Sherie would hit Raylee with her hands or objects, and push her — once pushing her into a cat’s litter box in the hallway.
Raylee slept on a mattress on the floor in a room she shared with Sherie. Often, the little girl was denied food and water and sent to bed hungry. When Raylee figured out she could slip out of the bedroom while Sherie was asleep and get something to eat then, the adults in the home put a lock and an alarm on the bedroom door to stop her. They even went as far as to instruct Raylee’s teachers not to give her any food at school, telling the school system that Raylee had an eating disorder and would be fed at home.
Julie’s daughter witnessed Raylee drink from the toilet bowl once, after the little girl had been denied water.
A child abuse pediatrician testified in court that Raylee was likely enduring medical abuse — the little girl was on more than five psychiatric medications by the time she was eight. Her guardians had been selectively describing different behavioral “symptoms” to get her on medications for depression and aggressive behaviors.
In 2015, Raylee’s leg was broken — most likely by Sherie, as Julie’s daughter testified the injury happened while Raylee and Sherie were alone in their room. Sherie then instructed Julie’s daughter lie to Child Protective Services and say Raylee had kicked a wall. Court testimony from one of Raylee’s teachers suggests the broken femur sparked reports to CPS, though Julie’s daughter couldn’t remember ever being questioned by CPS.
At that time, Julie’s daughter (around ages 8-9) and Raylee (around ages 5-6) had both been attending a public elementary school. During Raylee’s time in public school, teachers contacted CPS multiple times because the little girl was constantly hungry and covered in bruises. To avoid further scrutiny, Raylee’s guardians pulled her out of school and “homeschooled” her.
Except, unlike the other children in the home, Raylee wasn’t offered an education.
Instead, she was forced to stand still or walk the hall or run up and down the stairs for hours. Meanwhile, Sherie ran a homeschool group for the other three kids and a couple other kids who came over for lessons.
A few days before Christmas 2018, Raylee became sick, coughing and struggling to breathe — sounding like a “pug,” according to Julie’s eldest daughter. Sherie accused Raylee of faking being sick while her father, Marty, ignored her.
Julie’s daughter testified in court that she heard the adults repeatedly talk about taking Raylee to the hospital leading up to Christmas — but none of them did.
On Dec. 26, 2018, an ambulance was finally called to collect Raylee and take her to the doctor.
The ambulance crew testified Raylee was unresponsive and “blue” when Sherie Titchnell handed the little girl over to them. Nurses and ER personnel testified there was no evidence Raylee was alive by the time she reached the hospital. A doctor declared 8-year-old Raylee dead a little over half an hour after she arrived at the hospital.
She died of pneumonia — “a very severe necrotizing bronchial pneumonia … an infection to the lung to the point the tissue is actually dying,” said a medical expert who reviewed Raylee’s autopsy report.
In 2022, a jury found Marty, Julie, and Sherie guilty of child neglect resulting in death, but all three were found not guilty on charges of child abuse resulting in death.
Raylee’s Law is designed to protect children like Raylee from known abusers and/or neglectful guardians. Opponents of the measure have frequently mischaracterized it as a way to block parents who want to homeschool their kids by leveling spurious allegations at them. But that has never been the case: The bill has always required credible suspicions — like reports made to CPS by mandatory reporters — or records of conviction for child abuse/neglect or domestic violence.
If homeschool absolutists hadn’t spent five years blocking Raylee’s Law, the law might have been in place in time to save Kyneddi Miller — a 14-year-old girl was found dead in her Boone County home last year. Her body was “skeletal” and “emaciated,” and it’s reported she starved to death.
According to the criminal complaint against Kyneddi’s mother and grandparents, a family member told police Kyneddi had an eating disorder; the state of her body suggests she hadn’t received any medical treatment in at least four years. She also hadn’t been to school in that same amount of time — since 2019 or 2020 —allegedly being homeschooled, and had only been out of the house “twice” in those years. None of the required homeschool assessments were submitted to the county to prove Kyneddi was continuing her education, but it appears no one followed up.
Neighbors told a reporter they hadn’t seen Kyneddi since 2019, but she had appeared healthy then. Neighbors also said they had seen a police officer stop by the house previously, ostensibly for a wellness check. The officer spoke to Kyneddi that day, but he made a referral to CPS in person, rather than emailing or calling the official phone number. The CPS worker the officer spoke to never filed a report, allegedly because there was no complaint of abuse or neglect.
Roughly a year later, Kyneddi was found dead on her bathroom floor.
Will Raylee’s legacy be the number of children whose lives her story has saved? Or the number of children who ended up abused, neglected, and ultimately dead just like her?
Only the West Virginia Legislature can decide.
J. Nelson - Writer 