MARTINSBURG – A settlement has been reached in lawsuits alleging a Berkeley County special needs student was abused by school staff members.
Terms of the settlements were not disclosed following the November 23 hearing before Circuit Judge Laura Faircloth. The Berkeley County Board of Education voted November 20 to settle the cases. Earlier this month, Faircloth signed an order sealing the settlements.
In October 2018, parent Amber Pack placed a recording device in her daughter’s hair after noticing bruises on her when she returned from school at Berkeley Heights Elementary School in Martinsburg. In her lawsuit filed in February 2019, Pack said the recording included inappropriate, abusive and threatening comments to her child, such as threats to punch her in the face, pull her hair until she started crying and backhand her in the teeth.
Salango
Three other parents who had children in the classroom also filed similar lawsuits. The lawsuits were filed against the board, former teacher Christina Lester, former aides June Yurish and Kristin Douty as well as Principal Amber Boeckmann. In August 2019, Lester, Yurish and Douty were arrested and charged with failure to report abuse. The criminal cases still are pending.
The lawsuits alleged violations of constitutional rights, violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“The Pack family is pleased that the civil lawsuits have been amicably resolved,” attorney Ben Salango told The West Virginia Record. “They remain committed to seeing the criminal matter through to conclusion as well.”
Salango couldn’t say much more because of confidentiality clauses in the settlement.
“But, we do now have cameras in special needs classrooms,” Salango said. “So, some good things came out of this situation.”
That camera legislation was passed in the 2019 legislative session.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey also filed a complaint against the school board, the teacher and the aides. It later was amended to include the principal and Deputy Superintendent Margaret Kursey for actively trying to hinder the investigation and obscure evidence.
Morrisey is seeking a court order declaring that Lester, Yurish, Douty, Boeckmann, Kursey and the Berkeley County Board of Education violated the state’s Human Rights Act. He is also seeking a $5,000 civil penalty for each violation and an injunction to block the individual defendants from having any contact with the students in question or their family members. That case still is pending.
In April 2019, the school board filed a complaint against Pack for allegedly violating state and federal wiretapping laws when she used the recording device in her daughter’s hair. Five days later, the board withdrew that countersuit.