Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Mom hides recorder in daughter's hair & what she hears from school is shocking

Episode Date: March 8, 2019

When a West Virginia special ed student told her mom she didn't want to go to school, the mother knew something must be wrong in class. So Amber Pack decided to investigate. She ordered a small voice recorded online and hid it in the hair of her six-year-old daughter, Adri. Pack was shocked when she listened to what a day at school was like for her child. It revealed verbal and physical abuse of Adri and other students allegedly by her teacher and the teacher's assistants. Amber Pack and her lawyer, Ben Salango, visit with Nancy Grace to discuss the case. Also in this episode, Dr. Adrian Wood, a blogger who investigated the abuse story, and Crime Stories Robyn Walensky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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no prescription required, and it can be used while sleeping. With almost 200,000 devices sold, Quell is designed for anyone suffering with a wide range of pain. If you suffer from daily challenging pain, I urge you to try Quell risk-free 60 days. If you're not thrilled, return it for a refund. Go to quellradio.com, enter promo code Nancy for $30 off a starter kit. Quell, Q-U-E-L-L, quellradio.com. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Out of backhand, you're biting your teeth. How's that for anxiety? According to parents, that's a secret recording of an instructor talking to kids inside

a special education class at Berkeley Heights Elementary School in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Amber Pack sent her eight-year-old daughter to class with a recording device after the child didn't want to go back to school. I hardly even know what to say. You know, it's very rare that I'm left speechless, but I'm so sick at my heart hearing that secret audio tape. Listen. A different instructor in the same class. Well, you got to go pee-pee? Pee-pee?

Pee. Or do you not have to go pee-pee and you just want to go to the crossroads? I'll take it. There's more. I'm going to pull your hair until you stop crying. Don't throw it. Don't throw. Animal you. Yep. You wench.

You're like a pygmy. You're like a pygmy pygmy. The next day, PAC alerted the school district and the Martinsburg Police Department. Do you think this has been going on for a while? Yes. That was the first day I put the recorder in her hair. One day you caught all this? One day. Eight hours.

You can hear the instructors sometimes singing songs and reading stories to students and other times. How your tears dry up so quickly, crocodile. And then she wants to destroy everything in sight. I'm going to knock you out. I couldn't eat for three days. I was so, my stomach, everything. I was just so upset.

And every time I looked at her, I'd start crying. Hacey Murphy, whose six-year-old son Owen is in the same class, nobody alerted her to the recording, even though PAC had already handed it over to the school district. I've never heard from the principal. I've never heard from the superintendent. I've never heard from any of them. It wasn't until November, after PAC posted a clip of the recording on Facebook,

that Murphy became aware of it. I'm going to beat your butt. For sure. You know, and you're going to get one just because. It's sickening. Like, people don't even talk to animals like that. And they're talking to nonverbal children who don't understand why they're talking to them like that. They're not doing anything wrong. On the recording, the instructors tease and refuse to give Owen food. Growl at me. I dare you. And you won't get one.

Go ahead. There's nothing says I have to give you a snack. Nothing. Looks like you get nothing, Owen. Sorry, buddy. The Berkeley County Prosecutor's Office found no criminal wrongdoing, but County Prosecutor Katie Wilkes-Delagatti told Casey Murphy, I am not in any way condoning the verbal treatment of your children by the individuals in the classroom. I don't understand why you treated her the way you treated her. She did not deserve that. No kid does.

You are hearing our friend Scott Taylor at ABC7 WJLA investigative team doing an incredible job as he reports on. It's a very upsetting story. You could hear the children moaning and crying. These are special needs children being spoken to worse than I've ever heard someone speak to an animal, just like the mom says. And I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. And I know it's hard to hear, but if we don't confront it, we can't fix it. And joining me right now, a very special guest. The mother of that little girl, Adri. Amber Pack is with us.

Ben Salengo is with us. Amber's lawyer. Dr. Adrienne Wood. The blogger of Tales of an Educated Debutant.com. Who investigated this story. With me, forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober. Also with me, crimeonline.com investigative reporter Robin Walensky. I want to go straight to Amber Pack, the mother of four. Amber, tell me what led you to hide an audio device in your daughter's hair? Well, Adri would, she didn't want to go to school this year. I thought she just hated school. I mean,

she's always been pretty attached to me, but she would try to hide from me in the mornings in between getting ready. Her bus driver had made the comment that she starts crying as soon as they pull up to the school. I popped in to pick her up, and she'd been crying really hard. When I asked the teacher about it, her answer I knew was a lie. I spoke to her doctor about all the anxiety and stuff she was having and how I didn't think I was getting the right answers from the teacher and told her that I was going to put a record on her and she said she thought that would probably be a good idea if for nothing else, to give me um peace of mind you know i didn't think that it was going to be this horrible though how did you put the device in in adrie's hair

she has a ton of hair i um sectioned the middle part in the top and put the recorder inside and then did like the first loop of a shoe tie put a hair band around that and then brought the rest of her hair up around it and did like a bun did adri even know she had a hearing uh recording device in her hair um she was not happy with the amount of time it took to do her hair that morning so did yes i think did she know there was a recorder in there um I don't know if she knew that um like whatever what I was doing it for but I know she knew that I was putting something in her hair I'm just beside myself I mean I can hear one of the instructors saying, you want, you're talking about anxiety, and then threatens to beat the child. Yeah, and that's after I told them what her doctor had said about her anxiety.

And then she says, I'm going to knock you out. It goes on and on and on. You're like a pygmy. You're like a pygmy. You're like a pygmy thing. You're an animal. These are teachers. I'm going to pull your hair until you start crying. You want to go pee-pee?

Or do you just want to go, and what she says is jerk off. Those are the words the teacher says. To a child in a chair. This one I want to punch right in the face. I ought to backhand you right in your teeth. How's that for anxiety? And what I don't understand is why there are no criminal charges. Joining me right now, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Robin Walensky, who has been investigating the case. Robin, let's just start at the beginning. What do you know? Well, I know, Nancy, that this is Berkeley County Elementary School and that this was a special

class. There were only four children in this classroom, age six six including Amber Pack's daughter and there were three one teacher a female and two female teachers aides so again for students three adults and none of this would have come to light because there are no cameras in that classroom. Across our country, we do have school districts, Nancy, that do have cameras and recording equipment in special needs classrooms, but not to date, not in this classroom. Amber Pack putting this $20 device from Amazon in her daughter's hair. None of these details, horrendous details, would have come to light. Joining me, a high-profile lawyer for Amber Pack, Ben Salengo. Ben, it's a real honor to have you on. I'm not sure why this doesn't rise to some criminal abuse on a child.

Well, it certainly does, Nancy. We're disappointed that the county prosecutor has thus far declined to press charges. However, we're hopeful that charges will be filed. As you know, there's a statute. What's the county prosecutor's name, Ben? Her last name is Deligati. She's a mother. What's the county prosecutor's name, Ben? Her last name is Deligati. And she's a mother. You know, I think she's sympathetic.

She has listened to us, and I'm hopeful that she will file that she was in reasonable apprehension of physical harm, which as a former prosecutor, you know, is the standard for an assault claim. Well, wait a minute. That's for an aggravated assault or an assault. Right. For an abuse claim, you don't have to have proof of fear. And the fact that little H.E. cried every day and the doctor said it was anxiety, that is fear. That's exactly our point. And I think the prosecutor is considering that. I'm not sure that it was considered before. But more importantly, in West Virginia, there's a duty to report whenever a teacher or a teacher's aide suspects abuse. Here they actually witnessed it

and they had 24 hours to report, as did the Board of Education, as did the superintendent, as did the principal, because they all knew, the principal knew the following day, the superintendent knew the following week. They had 24 hours to report it, and they didn't. So hopefully additional criminal charges will be considered. Well, here you go, everybody. If you are as disgusted and upset by what you heard as I am, here's how you can reach the county prosecutor delegati. 304-264-1971. A Martinsburg parent says it wasn't until she placed a recording device into her daughter's hair that it picked up some very disturbing audio in her special education class at Berkeley Heights Elementary.

And we just want to warn you that that audio may be disturbing to some. Out of backhand, you bite your teeth. How's that for anxiety? Amber Pack says she learned of the disturbing audio recordings one night in October after she decided to take matters into her own hands when her 7-year-old daughter, who was nonverbal, wasn't acting her usual self. There's no way for me to really see because when I get there, Adrienne would, like, cling to me. She'd want to leave.

She brought up the attention to the school and says administrators swept the incident under the rug for about four weeks. It wasn't until she placed the incident on social media that the school placed two employees on administrative leave. And according to Berkeley County Schools the teacher has since resigned Berkeley County prosecuting attorney Katie Wilkes Delegate along with investigators reviewed the eight-hour audio recording and said while the criminal offense cannot be proven the verbal treatment is shocking and disturbing they're like um are you gonna puke on me today

Adri um did your mom do your eyebrows you don't have a unibrow today. Like, just, like, why would you say that? And according to Berkeley County Prosecutor's Office, Katie Cook, the delegated, she says, according to West Virginia law, verbal abuse is not considered a criminal. But Amber hopes that there is justice soon. Well, of course, now we know that those aides have resigned. And believe it or not, the vote was four to one to accept the resignations. Who in the world didn't want to accept the resignation? You're hearing from our friends at WDVM-TV. That's reporter Tao Ta

reporting on this. And joining me is the mother of that beautiful little girl, Adri, a special needs student, who, along with her classmates, berated, insulted, threatened, threatened by teacher's aides. It's incredible. With me, their lawyer, well-known Ben Salengo, the lawyer for Amber Pack. Also with me, Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist. Joe Scott Morgan, forensics expert. And joining me right now, Dr. Adrienne Wood.

Dr. Adrienne is at TalesOfAnEducatedDebutant.com. She investigated this story. And while the mom, Amber Pack, had brought this to everyone's attention, nobody did a thing. There was not a blip on the screen until it was posted on Facebook. Dr. Adrienne Wood, explain to me as a blogger how you got involved in this story. You know, Nancy, I last, about a week ago, Sunday, was just scrolling through Facebook, Sunday evening, and a friend had shared the clip that Amber, thankfully, had shared on Facebook. And as a special needs mom myself, a mother of four, my heart broke. And the more I looked into the case, the more horrified I became. And I think what struck me was not the abuse is terrible on its

own, but the subsequent lack of action just absolutely tore my heart apart. Um, I realized that Amber Pack had called the police. Um, the police met with the principal on October 5th, officer Connor was the police officer that went in that day. And the case never escalated to a detective. On that day, Amber Pack was told, I believe, by the principal that the teachers were talking to one another. And for the next 28 days, those teachers remained in the classroom, as did all the other children. Amber, fortunately, had pulled Adri out of school. And it wasn't until Amber shared that clip on Facebook on October, I believe it was 29th, the following day, the two assistants were placed on leave.

And the lead teacher was in the classroom until November 14th. I don't understand it. Amber Pack, you're the mother of little Adri that endured all this. And we just heard a tiny sample of what Amber heard. What took so long? What do you mean they were talking to each other? I think that was the case of CYA. Cover your...

Well, the police officer, when my husband emailed her the entire clip, she was in the school within an hour or two. There's no way she listened to the whole eight hours. She only played them the I'm going to punch within in the school within an hour or two there's no way she listened to the whole eight hours she only played them the um i'm gonna punch you in the face uh how or no yeah i'm gonna punch you in the face and then shut up that's what that she played at the uh in the principal's office so they told me that they were talking to each other and i said you know okay i'll give you that one i'll give you that one but I'll give you that one. But the whole recording is disgusting. You know, the whole day is disgusting. They said that's not the only thing that they said. And she told me that they would never hurt my child and that she felt

like this was a communication error and that she wanted me to come in and have a meeting with Adri's team. But I said that Adri would not be coming back there, and I think I started crying and got all upset. I still don't understand. Joining me, attorney for Amber Pack, Ben Salengo. Ben, I still don't understand why this is not clearly an assault, a simple assault at the least, because the child suffered extreme anxiety. And that's not only based on Amber's observation, but a doctor as well. That's what simple assault is.

And the reason I'm talking about this, Ben Salango, as you well know, just resigning, that means these teachers' aides can go somewhere else and do the same thing to other students, Ben. Why is this not a crime? It is a crime, and it should have been charged, and we're still hopeful that it will be charged. There's a one-year statute of limitation to bring the charges, but the prosecutor indicated that because the child cannot testify, because she is nonverbal, that she could not express that she was in reasonable apprehension of a violent assault. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. Ben, please tell me that again. The prosecutor said because the child is nonverbal, she cannot testify that she was in reasonable apprehension of an attack. Okay, pause. Right there, Ben.

Ben, let me tell you what happened to me. When I was a prosecutor, as you know, 10 years, inner city Atlanta, all felonies. I had many, many child abuse and child molestation cases. I'm thinking of two off the top of my head, and I can remember the defendant's and the victim's names, children. Both of them nonverbal. Both of them could not testify on the stand fully.

Both of them put their heads down on their desk, let me just say, on the witness stand. They could not continue. Their convictions in both, and both of those were sex molestation charges. Okay? There are people that are nonverbal that are crime victims. And those are the cases that must be prosecuted more than any others. We agree. Because those are the weakest people in our society. We agree. What do you mean she's non-verbal so I can't prosecute the case? What's her name? What is the lawyer's name? Her last name is Deligati.

She's the Berkeley County prosecutor. And we agree with you. Catherine Wilkes Deligati. That's her name. And she is actually saying because a child can't speak, she can't prosecute the case? We completely disagree. What, did she go to law school? She did. We're hopeful that she will. Has she ever tried a case? Or is she just a political figurehead? Well, I, uh, I, I certainly think she could have been more aggressive with this one and, uh, hopefully she will. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna say she won't. More aggressive? I am, uh, we're not pleased with what she did.

Help me somebody. I mean, okay. I'll take you out of the mix because you're trying to navigate this. Well, what I'm doing, I don't want to fore the mix because you're trying to navigate this and deal with it. I don't want to foreclose the ability for them to bring charges. Quite frankly, it would have been easy. Okay, I hear you. It would have been easy to bring charges in this case. You should have.

And there would be a conviction, as you and I both know. Once they play those tapes to a jury, they're done. I mean, they're going to be convicted. Hi, Nancy Grace here. Have you ever Googled yourself, your neighbors, somebody at work, a crush? 57% of Americans admit to keeping an eye on their own online reputation. 46% admit to using the Internet to look up somebody from their past. But Google and Facebook, the tip of the iceberg

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You wench. You're like a pygmy. You're like a pygmy thing. When I hear that sound and there is eight hours of it, it just makes me physically recoil. You are hearing so-called special aid teacher's assistants berating, torturing, verbally assaulting little children in class, at school. And with me, the mother of that little girl, Adri. Amber Pack is with me, a mother of four. Adri has special needs. Ben Salengo, Amber Pack's lawyer.

Dr. Adrienne Wood, the blogger who investigated this story at talesofaneducateddebutant.com, forensics expert Joe Scott Morgan, and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober. Dr. Bober, I can't help but notice there were three teachers in the room. Nobody said, guys, don't talk that way. Stop it. I'm going to report you. They all just went along. What is that PAC mentality, Dr. Bober? Yeah, it's pretty sick, Nancy. I've seen a lot of things as you have, and this story really makes me nauseous. I mean, you know, you see this like in fraternities where hazing is going on. It's just, it really needs, I believe, criminal prosecution. And it's just, it's very, it's just it's very it's just vicious. It's

just absolutely vicious. I also don't understand why this is not a crime being considered a crime by Delegati, the so-called prosecutor in this case, who says she can't prosecute because the child's nonverbal. I've never heard more BS in my whole life. To Joseph Scott Morgan, how can we prove this case? Maybe you can give the prosecutor delegati a little tutorial. Yeah, it escapes me how they could not move forward with a prosecution and to what Ben had said earlier relative to the one-year statute of limitation. Maybe they're, I don't know, maybe they're waiting to a point in time where they can move forward. One of the striking things about this, Nancy, Amber really kind of, oh boy, just put the bow on this just a moment ago. She said, we're only hearing eight hours of this. We're only hearing a segment of eight hours.

What about all of those days prior to this? Day after day after day after day. And what really makes this so soul-crushing is the fact that these children are nonverbal. You know, they're experiencing fear here over a protracted period of time. Lord only knows what else has gone on in that classroom. Why are they just on administrative leave and then they were allowed to resign? One board member, Michelle Barnes Russell, voted no. She wanted them to stay on in their job? But what was that all about to Amber Pack, the mother of little Adri? Why did one board member vote no that they would not accept the resignation. I believe she voted no because she wanted them fired. But that's just my, yeah, that's just my. Oh, okay. Well, that gives me a little renewed

respect for her. Good for her. You know, to Ben Salengo, lawyer for Amber Pack. Ben, does this mean these teachers' aides can just go on to another school and inflict pain and misery on more students? Yes. Yes, it does. You know, every time the Berkeley County Board of Education had an opportunity to do the right thing, they chose not to. Specifically, they put the teacher and the aides off on, not just administrative leave, paid administrative leave. They were paid to sit home. Finally, even after they had all of the evidence, they said, well, we're going to let you resign rather than terminate you. Now, as a token, they put a letter in their personnel file.

But as you and I both know, personnel files are confidential. So if they go across the border to Virginia or Maryland, those personnel files are not going to follow them, even if the new school district where they work requests them. They don't turn them over. So they clearly should have been fired. And it's shocking that the school board let them resign. To Dr. Adrienne Wood, the blogger who investigated this story, she's at tellzoneeducateddebutant.com. What do you make of it, Adrienne? I think we need to be concerned that Christina Luster, the lead teacher, immediately once she resigned, she got a job

at Grafton in Berryville, West Virginia, a group home for troubled teens, and she was not fired until Tuesday. And so I think you're seeing exactly the fear of what happens. It's in a personnel file, like the attorney just stated. And here up until Tuesday, she's been working with troubled teens. Oh my goodness. After this, how can that be Dr. Wood? You know, I think what we're seeing in West Virginia is the epitome of the good old boy network. I have never in my life seen so many people cover up crime. And I think there's been a, the other night at the board meeting, you heard parent after parent, men, women, grandparents cry and tell these stories of abuse and they were never heard.

And I don't think it was until a group got together and said, you know what, we're not as dumb as you think we are. And we are not going to stand for this any longer. The game is over. This is all going down in a small town in West Virginia. A secret classroom recording has very upsetting threats made by instructors toward not just students, but special needs students. And if the community in Martinsburg lets this go without a prosecution, it's on them. It is on them. If that's what they want in their schools, it's on

them. If they want to let Delgado get away with this, it's on them. The first protest over the recording happened at Town Center. Now, the recording was made by Amber Pack, who knew something was horribly wrong happening with her daughter at school. Her daughter, special needs Adri, would run and hide from her in the morning when it was time to go to school. Would get so anxious and the poor little thing couldn't speak and tell mommy what's wrong and would cry and be upset. Now we know what was wrong. One instructor, I ought to backhand you right in the teeth. How's that for anxiety? That's after the mom told the teachers that the daughter was having anxiety. It goes on and on and on with the teachers that the daughter was having anxiety. It goes on and on and on with the teachers berating and threatening the students.

I want to go to Joe Scott Morgan. I agree with the mom, Amber Pack. She is leading the fight for classroom cameras. And I don't know why that doesn't exist. They've even got them at daycare for dogs and cats. You can look in and see your dog hopping around and barking and eating. And we will do that for pets, but not for children. Yeah, isn't that odd, Nancy? That, you know, I think that, you know, the world that we live in nowadays, I think there ought to be an app on the phone where if you want to look in on your child,

you ought to be able to click on a button and be able to see what's going on in the classroom because it's getting to this point. You know, it's really an odd construct, isn't it? We go into these environments with these children that are so fragile, and we're essentially turning them over to an unknown person. We don't know what their background is. We hope that the school system has vetted them appropriately. But, you know, they just kind of disappear behind these doors after that period of time. Eight hours a day. And that's very scary, Nancy. Eight hours a day alone with your children. It's standing room only at Monday's Berkeley County School Board meeting

and emotions are at an all-time high as parents ask for multiple resignations of school district ONLY AT MONDAY'S BERKELEY COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD MEETING. AND EMOTIONS ARE AT AN ALL TIME HIGH AS PARENTS ASK FOR MULTIPLE RESIGNATIONS OF SCHOOL DISTRICT OFFICIALS. I ASK YOU THAT YOU DO THE RIGHT THING AND YOU TURN IN YOUR RESIGNATION IMMEDIATELY. EVERYONE UPSET OVER A SECRET SCHOOL RECORDING EXPOSING THREE INSTRUCTORS IN A SPECIAL EDUCATION CLASS MAKING DISTURBING COMMENTS TO FIRST GRADERS. I'M GONNA BACK HAND YOU RIGHT IN YOUR TEETH. Three instructors in a special education class making disturbing comments to first graders. Out of backhand, you're right in your teeth. The district says teacher Christina Lester and aides June Urish and Christian Dowdy have all resigned in connection. People faced on the school board, including two of the moms of students who were the target of the alarming comments.

What I heard was nothing short of horrific. And all I could think was, please, God, tell me this was an isolated incident. Many comments directed at Superintendent Manny Arvon. People believe he didn't remove all the instructors fast enough from the classroom and failed to alert all the students' parents. You are hearing our friend, that is Elia Williamson at WDVM-TV, and outraged parents who show up at a school board meeting demanding resignations after this abuse audio is released by mom Amber Pack on Facebook because she was not getting any response from the school. So she finally had to release it on social media.

Amber Pack with me now, along with Dr. Adrienne Wood, a blogger at Tales of an Educated Debutant.com. Dr. Adrienne Wood, a blogger at Tales of an Educated Debutant.com, Dr. Adrian Wood, a blogger who investigated this story, Amber's lawyer, Ben Salango, Joe Scott Morgan, and Dr. Daniel Bober, we are also learning that the West Virginia Attorney General is launching a suit against the teacher's aides accused of mistreatment. The West Virginia Attorney General's Office now investigating allegations the teacher's aides mistreated children in a special ed classroom. They found out after Amber made this public, getting no response from the school. Now, the AG, Patrick Morrissey, is seeking the enforcement of a state's Human Rights Act, alleging the teachers are guilty

of verbally assaulting nonverbal special needs children. To Ben Salengo, Amber's lawyer, what about that? Will that land them in jail, or will it be considered a criminal action? No. You know, we appreciate the Attorney General's assistance in the case, and certainly his involvement will help with investigation. But the Attorney General doesn't have the authority to prosecute. All he can do is get an injunction to keep them from teaching in West Virginia. It doesn't even go beyond the borders of West Virginia. And then he can enforce fines. Well, hold on.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Ben Salingo, how embarrassing for the district attorney, the county prosecutors, you guys call them. Yeah. What was her name again? Katie Delagatti is her name. Katie Delagatti. How embarrassing for the state attorney general to have to take some kind of an action because you're, let me just say, sitting on your thumb, dropping the ball. And to you, Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, what about the cops who first answer the call?

That's my biggest beef with this entire case. You have a crime that goes on or an alleged crime, and you have the first police officer on the scene, Nancy. And that person is like, oh, nothing to see here. Gotta go. Doesn't bump it up to her boss, to the detective bureau, to the investigators, to sexual assault. If there was, we don't know. She just looks the other way and goes on with her day. That to me, the first line of defense is the first police officer who is called to the scene to investigate who does nothing. To Amber Pack, the mother of Adri, who was so distraught over her child's anxiety and crying, not wanting to go to school anymore, upset all the time. Remember, her child is nonverbal. But I can tell when something's wrong with John David or Lucy.

I can tell just by looking at them that something is wrong. She can tell something's wrong with Adri. Can you imagine what drove her to buy a recording device and put it in her child's hair? It was to that point. Amber Pack, when you heard the recording, what was your reaction? Tell me about the moment you heard this recording. At some point, I was just so mad. You know, I was shaken.

And then the verbal threats, they actually made me vomit. Like, it was horrible. How is your daughter behaving now that she's in a new environment? Wonderfully. She's progressing. She's done more in three months at her new school than she did in a new environment? Wonderfully. She's progressing. She's done more in three months at her new school than she did in a year at the old one. And they've had to work very hard. I bet they have.

It's hard enough for a child without a disability, much less with the disabilities your little Adri is facing. Amber, did you ever see these teachers' aides or teacher face-to-face? Yeah, yeah. Not since the incident. What did they say? Before. I mean, you know, smiles and waves. No one ever told me that they had such a problem with my child, you know. The problem is not with your child. The problem is with themselves. No, the problem is definitely not with my child but they never let me know that that this is how her day went you know that she cried the entire day did she ever come home with scratches or bruises she did

have bruises on her forearms but like there's no way for me to um yeah i don't know for sure where they came from. Okay, let me understand this. So Amber, she goes to school without bruises. She comes home with bruises on her arms. Like little dots on her forearm. Like maybe she could have bumped or it could have been somebody grabbed her. You know, she does. I mean, Joe Scott Morgan, you and I have seen that a million times in criminal cases.

Now, we're typically talking about dead bodies, but where women usually or children are grabbed by someone on their arms above the elbows or yanking them along under the elbow. And those are actually finger bruises where the fingers or the thumb imprint into the child's arms. Yes, it can. I would be suspicious of that. Like she's saying, we can't prove that but i would be suspicious yeah i would be too and and that's great amber i'm glad that you did you just say you have pictures did you show that to the so-called county prosecutor no i wasn't allowed to bring my phone into the meeting so but they they never asked me to send them to them either. Good, great.

I'm glad you've got Selango working for you for Pete's sake. I see this as a huge miscarriage of justice. I mean, at least, at the least, the county prosecutor could take the case to trial, let a jury say not guilty if they want to. But I've got a feeling once they hear this audio tape, they won't say not guilty. Hey, Ben Salengo, you're the lawyer for Amber Pack. Is this jurisdiction, West Virginia, which I visited many times, I've got a relative from West Virginia, is that a one or two party

recording state? It's a one party consent state. And there's West Virginia cases. Wonderful. Yeah. And it gets even better. There's a West Virginia case right on point where the mother, her consent can transfer to the child. So the tape is admissible. Yeah. What we're talking about, sorry, I went to warp speed there. Lawyer talk. I hate it when lawyers do that. What it is is when you make a secret recording of someone, in some states, both parties, the recorder and the recordee, have to agree to be taped.

In many other states, I think the majority, it's one party consent. Like you can take people that call you in your home in many states. And that's what happened here. Amber did the recording. The teachers did not consent to it. But that is admissible in West Virginia. To you, Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, what now? Nancy, so going forward, here's what we have. Amber Pack's attorney, Ben Salongo, believes he can prove her daughter was also physically assaulted. So he is filing a civil lawsuit with the goal of having a jury decide damages. And if money is awarded, it would go into a trust for the little girl to have when she turns 18.

Now, meanwhile, in other developments, get this, they are in search of a new school superintendent. The Berkeley County Board of Ed, in a unanimous vote, has accepted the resignation of Manny Arvon, who is retiring. And I use air quotes here. By all accounts, he was totally ineffective. As you'll recall, Amber Pack gives the audio tape to police. Police turn it over to the principal. The principal turns it over to the superintendent. And guess what? Nothing, absolutely nothing was done. So now he's retiring, Nancy. So what now, Amber Pack? What do you want to happen now? And how can I help you? I want them criminally charged. I want cameras in the classrooms. I kind of feel like our whole board of education needs looked into. We have, we're passing down principal roles at schools, like their family business. You know, there's no reason everyone's son or daughter on the board has a brother or, you know, is a principal at a school.

It just, it doesn't make sense to me. Everyone here is related in print. My, that's quite the co-inky-dink, the coincidence that if you're on the school board, somehow your relatives get to be principals. You know what? It sounds to me like there's a whole lot of house cleaning that needs to be done.

Go to CrimeOnline.com if you want to hear these audio recordings, if you want to read about this, if you want your voice to be heard, which I do. Because it would be my honor one day to meet Adri and to meet Amber Pack and Ben Salengo and Dr. Adrienne Wood. I want to thank all of you, including Joe Scott Morgan, Dr. Daniel Bober, and Robin Walensky. Let's pray to God we can make a difference and we can make a change for the better in this world. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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