West Liberty University Professor of History, Dr. Darrin Cox, is currently running for a seat on the Ohio County Schools Board of Education in the upcoming 2022 election.

Dr. Cox first joined the faculty of West Liberty University in 2008 and has been a professor of history at this university ever since. His classroom experience dates back to being a master’s student at West Virginia University in 2000 where he held a graduate teaching assistantship in Women’s Studies. Overall, Cox currently holds a teaching career that expands beyond a total of 20 years.

Cox added, “My plan from the beginning of my pursuit of a Ph.D. was also to return to W.Va. in order to fight the “brain drain” that has been afflicting Appalachia for decades. As such, my education, experience, and expertise lend themselves to serving on the Board of Education.”

Cox’s father was a high school teacher for over 30 years and served as a board of education member for a few terms. Initially, Cox said that he didn’t want to become an educator because he saw all of the long hours his father worked and the grief he got from disgruntled parents. However, once he started Viking reenactments as an educator, he discovered a love for educating people and realized that the challenges a teacher faces is the cost of trying to make the world a better place.

Cox stated, “There are a number of reasons why I was inspired to run in the election to become an Ohio County School Board member. Many of them have stemmed from the current board’s handling of recent events but some are also long term. I’ve always had an interest in giving back to the community, which is one of the reasons why I’ve hosted free demonstrations of my Viking Living History Project at area schools over the past decade.”

If Cox wins a seat on the board of education, his first plan is to make sure libraries are properly funded in the county. Cox stated that he would also listen to what teachers have to say, as he believes teachers are the experts within the classrooms. His hope in prioritizing the voice of educators is to remove obstacles from their attempts to educate students. For example, he believes forcing high stakes testing on children has destroyed a teachers ability to utilize innovative techniques because they have to be single-mindedly focused on test scores.

Cox stated, “I would like to raise awareness in how a comprehensive history education can act as a curative for what ails us, socially and politically speaking, that is. The focus for so long has been on STEM and the result is that we’ve forgotten how to be good citizens and neighbors because we no longer have a memory of a shared destiny. Lastly, I’d like to defend local authority to determine local solutions, so long as those solutions rely on the expertise of professional researchers and not a few hours spent on Google.”

He also stated, “Being a teacher has allowed me to see that administrators need to listen more to teachers because they are the ones on the front lines. Being on West Liberty University’s Faculty Senate where I was the senate Chair and Chair of the Finance Committee for over a decade has given me experience on how boards function. I’m also currently West Liberty University’s representative on the Advisory Council of Faculty, who also elected me to serve as the Legislative Liaison, so I’m very much in tune with the measures the state is currently taking to further damage public education.”

If you’re interested in learning more about Cox and his campaign for running for the Ohio County Board of Education you can visit the Facebook page or search for Darrin Cox for the Board of Education.