On Sept. 18, a school aide at McNinch Primary School in Moundsville reportedly witnessed a horrifying incident in which a teacher grabbed a 6-year-old girl — nonverbal and on the autism spectrum — by the neck with both hands and squeezed. That aide took the girl to the nurse’s office, who took photos of red marks on the girl’s neck.

Then, the aide took the correct next step: reporting the incident to the school’s principal. After that, it seems, Principal Jane Duffy and Erin Cuffaro, district director of special programs, did not have the sense of urgency or desire to the right thing for the student that the aide and nurse had.

A West Virginia state trooper has viewed video of the incident, and another from Sept. 16. Teacher Kiersten Moses faces a felony count of strangulation, two felony counts of batter and assault of a disabled child and one count of felony child abuse. Duffy faces one misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect. And Cuffaro faces eight counts of felony gross neglect of child creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury; one misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect; one misdemeanor count of obstruction of law enforcement, probation, parole, court security, corrections officer with threats of harm; and one misdemeanor count of interference with officers or members and false information.

The trooper also saw a text message allegedly from Cuffaro to Duffy that read “My day is crazy. She did put her hands on (the student’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.”

But Cuffaro is accused of having later deleted that message. Further, she is accused of endangering the other students in Moses’ classroom by not removing her.

Again, these administrators are mandated reporters who should not have let a “crazy day” stop them from obeying the law that requires them to do what they can to protect the students in their charge from further abuse by reporting such incidents, if that is what happened.

“Our top priority is educating children,” said Marshall County Schools Superintendent Shelby Haines.

That may be the case for the vast majority of teachers and administrators. Certainly, both the aide and the nurse are to be commended for fulfilling their responsibility to the children in their care.

Meanwhile, the school district announced Monday that Moses is no longer with the district, while Duffy and Cuffaro currently “are not working” in Marshall County Schools as the investigation continues. All three have pleaded not guilty in Marshall County Magistrate Court. But should they be convicted on the charges they face, parents must expect significant retraining on best practices (and the law) when it comes to interacting with students and reporting mistreatment and abuse. Frankly, it sounds as though Marshall County Schools might want to consider it, anyway.