Former West Virginia special education teacher gets 10 years in abuse case
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former special education teacher in West Virginia was sentenced to the maximum 10 years in prison Tuesday for abusing several students.
Nancy Boggs was sentenced in Kanawha County Circuit Court stemming from incidents last September at Holz Elementary School in Charleston, news outlets reported.
"You turned your classroom into a place of what can only be described as torture," Judge Maryclaire Akers told Boggs.
Boggs, 67, pleaded guilty in May to 10 misdemeanor counts of battery. Akers ordered the sentences of one year on each count to be served consecutively.
Boggs admitted to hitting one female student with a cabinet door, pulling her hair and pulling a chair out from under her. Boggs also admitted to slamming another child's head into a desk and slapping a third child. Surveillance cameras captured the classroom incidents.
In March, Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill aimed at protecting students by requiring public school administrators to view video of each special needs classroom periodically and eliminated a requirement that video footage be deleted after a certain time period. The parents of one of the students in Boggs' case worked with lawmakers to strengthen an existing law.