The review of hours of video recorded inside a special needs classroom at McNinch Primary School in Moundsville has revealed reasons for additional charges to be filed against a former Marshall County educator, according to Prosecutor Joe Canestraro.
The prosecutor said his office has been assisted by an employee of the state’s Child Protective Services during the review of the footage. The cameras and recordings are mandated under Article 20: Education for Exceptional Children (§18-20-11).
A second child, Canestraro confirmed, could be involved as well.
“As long as the entire video review is completed in time, I will present to the county’s Grand Jury on the second Tuesday of July,” the prosecutor explained during The River Network’s “Novotney Now” radio program on Thursday. “I’m pretty positive we will be, but that’s just something that’s still on the table. Luckily, we have someone from CPS who is helping us with the videos so they can tell us what to concentrate on.
“And yes, the CPS employee has been able to point at certain situations that she’s identified additional examples of abuse, and those additional incidents and coinciding charges will be presented to the Grand Jury, as well as the original charges against the educator,” Canestraro revealed. “I can tell you the new incidents are not as bad as the grabbing and squeezing of the child’s neck, but these new incidents still rise to the level that it’s something that meets the statute of assault on a nonverbal child.”
An anonymous aide reported an alleged child abuse incident to the State Police in early October 2025, and 1st Sgt. S.M. Durrah launched his investigation on October 8th. He soon found, according to the report, that a video recording of the incident existed. It was not until December 7th, though, that LEDE published all documents connected to Sgt. Durrah’s full review.
Since suspended principal Jane Ann Duffy, suspended administrator Erin Michelle Cuffaro, and former special needs educator Kiersten Nicole Moses have all been charged with crimes connected to the alleged abuse.
The prosecution alleges the 22-year-old Moses grabbed the nonverbal, special needs student around the neck with both hands and, according to the report, squeezed the child’s neck for a few seconds. The child, Canestraro believes, is now 7 years old.
Initially, Moses was charged with felony strangulation, two counts of felony assault/battery of a disabled child, and felony child abuse. Duffy, the principal of McNinch Primary School at the time of the incident, faces one misdemeanor count for failing to report child abuse within 24 hours of the incident.
Cuffaro, who is the director of Special Programs, has been charged with two misdemeanors, including failure to report child abuse and obstructing law enforcement, and eight felony counts of gross neglect of a child, creating substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury.
Those cases remain pending.
“That’s because we’ve had to undertake this review of all of the video from every day before the teacher was removed from the classroom,” Canestraro said. “That means every second of video from every day in that classroom from day one up until the abuse was reported.
“The investigation began after an aide reported the incident to the State Police, and that’s when we learned the incident had not been reported to (Child Protective Services) by mandatory reporters,” he continued. “So, that report led to the charges, and they’re all still pending against the principal and the director of special programs for failure to make the report and child neglect for leaving children in the classroom with the teacher.”
It’s About Due Process
Once the report was filed and the investigator discovered evidence of the alleged incident, Moses resigned from her position with Marshall County Schools.
But that did not stop Canestraro, his staff, and the CPS employee from peering deeper into the former educator, and they discovered what the prosecutor believes is more incriminating evidence.
“Basically, there is video of the same teacher taking the arms of the same nonverbal special needs child and crossing the arms and then pulling them from behind the child so it looks like you’re basically restricting the child in a violent way,” the prosecutor described. “There’s a butt slap, too, but I think the biggest thing that bothered me about another of the incidents was literally the child had just gotten up from a table where they were doing work and there was a bean bag chair in the classroom with a television, and the child went to the bean bag.
“All the child did was get up and lay down in the bean bag chair and watch television, and the teacher got upset and put her back into the chair at the table,” he said. “And it does not appear as if she did it gently. I will say the one thing that you see from the videos is that there seemed to be a pattern, like anything this particular child did bothered the defendant.”
And, Canestraro reported, the recordings did reveal a separate questionable incident involving a different special needs student.
“At this point in reviewing the videos, we have discovered one other child that may have been abused in the same classroom by the same educator,” Canestraro reported. “After it’s determined what took place with the other child, it will help determine whether there will be more charges against the special ed director.
“So, I think the biggest message is, if you’re required, no matter what your job, if you’re required to be a mandatory reporter, you’d better report,” he said. “Even if you don’t think that a situation or an act rises to a level that you need to report it, report it anyway. We have to better protect the children.”
The West Virginia Code – §49-2-803 – Persons mandated to report suspected abuse and neglect; requirements – is a pretty simple law to understand, Marshall County’s prosecutor insisted.
“Here is a good example of what sometimes happens in my position,” Canestraro said. “If I go to a juvenile hearing and a juvenile complains in my presence that his or her mom or dad did something to them, guess what I’m going to do. I’m getting on the phone and calling CPS. It is the law, and teachers and administrators are mandated to do the same.
“And the State Police sergeant that did this investigation has been on the job many years, and he’s conducted a thorough investigation from top to bottom,” he said. “That includes the people we believe are involved with this incident all the way up the ranks in the school system. He was very, very thorough because this is a very, very serious matter.”
