CHARLESTON, West Virginia, December 11th, 2025.
The death of 15 year old Nitro High School student Bryce Tate is now officially at the center of a broader statewide conversation about online sextortion, student mental health, and how West Virginia schools teach digital safety.
According to a public press release from the KANAWHA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, deputies were dispatched on Thursday, November 6th, 2025 at approximately 7:10 p m after both parents called 911 to report a shooting on Kelly Road in Cross Lanes. Deputies arrived and found Bryce, a student at Nitro High School, deceased inside his home from a self inflicted gunshot wound. Detectives recovered his cellphone at the scene and submitted it to the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office Digital Forensic Lab, where it was examined by Detective Jarred Payne.
During that forensic review, investigators found communication showing that Bryce had been targeted in an online sextortion scheme on the same afternoon as his death. The sheriff’s office reports that the first contact began at approximately 4:37 p m on November 6th and continued until minutes before he died. The case has been adopted by FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION PITTSBURGH FIELD OFFICE because of its interstate and digital nature, and the investigation remains active.
In the release, KANAWHA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE defines sextortion as a form of online exploitation in which offenders coerce or manipulate victims into sending sensitive or intimate images, often by pretending to be another teenager or by using fake social media accounts. Once the images are obtained, offenders threaten to release them publicly unless the victim complies with demands; those demands can include money, additional explicit images, or both. The release notes that these schemes often move very quickly, are designed to overwhelm young people, and that although teenagers are most frequently targeted, adults can also become victims. The sheriff’s office extended condolences to Bryce’s family, friends, and the Nitro High School community and noted that its role now is supporting the continuing federal investigation.
That case and others like it reached the state’s top education officials this week. During the December regular meeting of the WEST VIRGINIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION, board president Paul Hardesty used his own time in open session to speak about Bryce’s death. Reading from the description of the case and clearly emotional, he summarized what KANAWHA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE had already made public: a 15 year old in Kanawha County died by suicide after being targeted in an online sextortion scheme, where someone contacted him through his cellphone, sent intimate photos while pretending to be interested in him, and then tried to extort him when he responded. He then asked directly what the board, the WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, and county school systems can do to help students recognize sextortion and get help before they feel trapped.
The board then turned to a school safety update from WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION staff. School safety liaison James Agee reported that the statewide Safe Schools Helpline has received 278 reports so far this school year, beginning in August, compared with 439 reports at the same point last year. Those reports include student behavior issues such as bullying and other concerns in buses and buildings; they also include more serious alerts involving suicidal thoughts, possible weapons, and direct threats. Agee described one recent example where students used the helpline to report a middle school classmate who had talked about bringing a gun to a private school in the county the next day. The helpline forwarded that report within minutes; the county superintendent quickly contacted the school director, and within about an hour, a law enforcement officer was at the student’s home talking with the parents.
Board members noted that the Safe Schools Helpline was originally designed for public schools, but WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION confirmed that school safety staff and regional school safety officers offer assistance to private schools inside each county as well. All of those regional officers are retired law enforcement officers who work with county superintendents and local agencies when a report comes in.
When President Hardesty asked specifically about sextortion, Agee acknowledged that investigators and families in Kanawha County are still coping with the details of Bryce’s death. He pointed back to education, both in homes and in classrooms, as the starting point for prevention. Students, he said, must be taught to be cautious about anything that appears on the internet or that arrives through a cellphone message, to be careful what they click, and to be wary of unsolicited contact that asks for personal photos or financial information. He also emphasized that many young people who are targeted feel shame and embarrassment, which can keep them from asking adults for help, and that adults need to understand that dynamic when they talk to students about online danger.
The board then connected that local tragedy to statewide law and policy. Last session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 466, known as the Safety While Accessing Technology or SWAT Act. The law requires a statewide online safety curriculum for public schools, with an interactive program that places students in simulated unsafe situations and asks them to choose how to respond. If a student selects an unsafe option, the program immediately corrects them and walks through a safer response; if they choose correctly, the lesson advances. The program covers grades 3 through 12, is being rolled out this school year, and will be required annually for students in future years.
In the board meeting, WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION staff explained that the SWAT training is already live and is moving into more schools each week; they told board members that the curriculum is geared toward helping students know what to do when they face online pressure or manipulation, including situations like sextortion. State officials noted that students who have already used the program report that it is helpful and that the department is trying to push it into every public school as quickly as possible, while also planning to expand the content over time.
The board discussion also returned to mental health and reporting. Safe Schools Helpline reports frequently involve students who are in severe emotional distress; many of those reports come from classmates who see or hear something concerning and choose to speak up. Board members stressed that they do not want schools, families, or students to wait until a child is in crisis before they ask for help.
At the same time, the board repeatedly stayed within what the official record can prove. In their discussion, they only described details that are already in the public press release from KANAWHA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE or in official reports, avoided assigning blame, and did not speculate about motives. That approach matched the school safety unit’s description of sextortion as a growing pattern of online crime rather than a single incident.
Across the full meeting, WEST VIRGINIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION and WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION officials tied these pieces together. The sextortion case now under investigation by KANAWHA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE and FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION PITTSBURGH FIELD OFFICE, the expansion of the Safe Schools Helpline, and the new SWAT online safety program were all presented as connected parts of a single goal: giving students clear ways to ask for help, teaching them how to respond when a stranger or fake account pressures them online, and making sure adults inside and outside school buildings know that sextortion is real and needs to be addressed directly.
For families, all of the official sources in this case point to the same set of concrete facts. Sextortion schemes can begin and escalate in a single afternoon. Offenders often use fake profiles that look like other teenagers. They depend on shame and panic to keep victims silent. Law enforcement in Kanawha County and federal investigators in Pittsburgh have now put those facts in writing, and the state’s top education officials have read them into the record in a public meeting.
The Appalachian Post will continue to report only what first hand sources confirm about this case and about West Virginia’s online safety programs, and will not speculate beyond what official records say.
The Appalachian Post is an independent West Virginia news outlet dedicated to clean, verified, first-hand reporting. We do not publish rumors. We do not run speculation. Every fact we present must be supported by original documentation, official statements, or direct evidence. When secondary sources are used, we clearly identify them and never treat them as first-hand confirmation. We avoid loaded language, emotional framing, or accusatory wording, and we do not attack individuals, organizations, or other news outlets. Our role is to report only what can be verified through first-hand sources and allow readers to form their own interpretations. If we cannot confirm a claim using original evidence, we state clearly that we reviewed first-hand sources and could not find documentation confirming it. Our commitment is simple: honest reporting, transparent sourcing, and zero speculation.
Sources
Primary First Hand Sources
• KANAWHA COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE press release “Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office Investigating Suicide Linked to Online Sextortion,” published November 21st, 2025, describing the death of 15 year old Bryce Tate, the timeline of online sextortion messages, and the transfer of the investigation to FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION PITTSBURGH FIELD OFFICE.
• WEST VIRGINIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION regular meeting in Charleston on December 10th, 2025, including the school safety update, Safe Schools Helpline data, and board discussion of sextortion and the SWAT program, as recorded in the official meeting transcript.
• WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE Senate Bill 466, Safety While Accessing Technology Act, establishing online safety training requirements for West Virginia public schools.
• WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION descriptions of the Safe Schools Helpline, regional school safety officers, and implementation of the Safety While Accessing Technology curriculum in grades 3 through 12.
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