TEAYS VALLEY, W.Va (WDTV) – A southern West Virginia man appeared on American Idol Monday night in a moving audition.

Mor Ilderton, 22 of Teays Valley, performed his original song, “Strong,” which helps illustrate the story about his mother dying when he was 2 years old at the hands of his father.

His grandmother Sandy, who raised him & told him she wasn’t able to attend, made a surprise visit at the end of his audition.

Mor received three ‘yes’ votes from the judges & is moving on to the Hollywood rounds in Nashville.

You can watch a clip from his audition below from American Idol’s Facebook page.

Copyright 2026 WDTV. All rights reserved.

HANCOCK COUNTY, W.Va. — Hancock County has become the most recent West Virginia school district to be placed under the control of the West Virginia Board of Education, joining Mingo, Upshur, Logan, Tyler, Nicholas and Boone counties.

“What we do have is that there’s been some problems in terms of accountability,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said. “When you have that many schools systems that are being taken over, that’s not a good sign. You have to be very proactive to get the word out, make sure those dowers are being used effectively.”

Last week, Morrisey named James Paul as the newest state school board member, his first appointee as governor. Morrisey has recently been critical of the state school board on a range of issues, including oversight of county board finances.

“I named a new state school board member, that was my first pick and I’ve asked him to try to get to the bottom of a lot of these issues because West Virginia doesn’t have a spending problem statewide- we’re actually the middle of the pack, between 25 and 27 in terms of spending per pupil,” Morrisey said.

A major question surrounding the situation at Hancock County Schools involves audits. The county had been operating more than 100 positions over state staffing formulas, and the state school financial operations officer told lawmakers in a committee meeting last month that the county failed to appropriately report through the West Virginia Education Information System. An investigation is still ongoing.

“It raises a question of exactly how these audits have been conducted and what else needs to be done to make sure money can’t fly out the door like that or that these districts are going to be run in a fiscally responsible manner,” Morrisey said.

Meanwhile, House Bill 4574 and House Bill 4575 have been held up in committees since Jan. 20. The bills would allow the state board to administer supplemental funds beyond the school funding formula and would appropriate $8 million to fund the shortfall supplement fund.

Asked whether the bills could move before the end of the legislative session in March, Morrisey said, “I’ve had some discussions with some people in the Senate and the House and I know that there is an interest in getting something done. We’ll keep talking about that and I do expect that there will be something that happens in the next few weeks before the session ends.”