BERKELEY COUNTY, W.Va. — A former Berkeley County Schools special needs teacher and two classroom aides have been permanently barred from holding any teaching position or working with special needs children, settling a civil lawsuit filed by the West Virginia Attorney General's Office.

The ruling is the result of a 2019 civil lawsuit brought under the state’s Human Rights Act against former Berkeley Heights Elementary School teacher Christina Lester and aides June Yurish and Kristin Douty. The Attorney General's Office confirmed that all three were found to have violated the act.

The case originated in 2018 when Amber Pack, the mother of a student in the Martinsburg classroom, used a hair barrette with a hidden recording device to expose the treatment students were receiving from the thr

See Full Page