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West Virginia school district identifies all 3 instructors in abusive classroom audio


ABC7
ABC7
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The Berkeley County School District has finally identified all three instructors heard on a secret recording that contains disturbing comments targeted at first graders in a special education class.

Thursday night as people protested across the street, the Berkeley County School Board publicly named the Special Education Aides and voted to accept their resignations. A letter explaining the circumstances of what happened is going into the employee files of aides June Yurish and Kristin Douty.

Christina Lester, who the District has identified as the teacher, resigned in December.

Two families told the I-Team the school system never told them about the secret recording.

"We learned of the recording last week when we saw it on the news,” said Diana Roberts, grandmother to one of the students in the class.

Roberts said the school system did not reach out to her.

West Virginia House Majority Whip Paul Espinosa just amended Senate Bill 451 after meeting with Kasey Murphy, the mother of one of the students who was a target of disturbing comments on the secret school recording. Senate Bill 451 now calls for School Boards to suspend or terminate an employee if the State finds any sign of student abuse.

"It’s my hope that this legislation will help prevent other children from being subjected to the abuse Ms. Murphy’s son Owen and his classmates endured,” West Virginia Del. Paul Espinosa said.

The Berkeley County School Board Meeting will be held Monday at 7 p.m. Parents are expected to ask for the resignation of Berkeley Heights Elementary School principal Amber Boeckmann and Berkeley County Public Schools superintendent Manny Arvon.

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