“My day is crazy. She did put her hands on (the child’s) neck briefly. Please talk with her about this. Not a verbal reprimand at this point, but tell her to watch putting her hands on children when it is not necessary.”
According to the documents provided by the Marshall County Prosecutor’s Office, that is the content of a text message that was sent from the director of special needs programs in Marshall County to the principal who was directly in charge of an educator who allegedly grabbed a 6-year-old non-verbal autistic student by the neck with both hands and squeezed.
The electronic exchange took place in mid-September, and that was that. Or so they thought, anyway.
The anonymous aide then reported the alleged child abuse to the West Virginia State Police, and 1st Sgt. S.M. Durrah launched his investigation on October 8th, and he soon found there existed a video recording of the incident.
But it was not until December 7th that LEDE published all documents connected to Sgt. Durrah’s full review, and now we know that suspended principal Jane Ann Duffy, suspended administrator Erin Michelle Cuffaro, and former special needs educator Kiersten Nicole Moses all have been charged with crimes connected to the alleged abuse.
Investigators allege the 22-year-old Moses grabbed the student around the neck with both hands and, according to the report, squeezed for a few seconds.
Moses faces several criminal charges, including 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.
Since the charges were announced, Moses has resigned, and Cuffaro and Duffy have been implicated in the case, and both have been suspended without pay.
Prosecutor Canestraro commended Sgt. Durrah for his thorough investigation.
“That’s because the investigation did not find any evidence that any other individual was involved with this situation, and I can tell you Trooper (Sgt. S.M.) Durrah worked diligently,” Canestraro said. “He worked the investigation all the way to the top, to the superintendent of schools (Shelby Haines), and the evidence he found led to the charges against the three individuals who have been charged and no one else.
“Our office worked with (investigator) Sgt. (Steven Michael) Durrah to develop the charges based on what we believe we can prove, so that’s how we decided to move forward,” he reported. “They were all picked up and arrested. So, they’ve all been arraigned. They were taken straight to a magistrate, and they were arraigned, pleaded not guilty, and they all immediately posted bond. That’s the reason you didn’t see mugshots; they basically posted bond immediately.”
The preliminary hearings for Duffy and Cuffaro were continued until January.
