MORGANTOWN – Christian Areford, a former North Elementary teacher’s aide facing charges for allegedly mistreating two disabled children, is suing the Monongalia County Board of Education.
The lawsuit filed April 20 in Monongalia County Circuit Court claims Areford, who’s only prior training and experience was as an esthetician, was not qualified to be a classroom autism aide and was not provided training in handling or interacting with children who possessed special needs.
Areford is suing for negligent training/supervision and intentional or reckless infliction of emotional distress, claiming the district’s negligence led to unsafe working conditions in the classroom.
“Plaintiff was assigned to eight children with a 72-year-old teacher’s aide and a substitute teacher named Diana who had no experience or training with special needs children,” the lawsuit states, adding that Areford was injured 16 times in about 15 months, resulting in incident reports filed with the school nurse.
“Defendant negligently supervised the classroom teacher assigned to the Plaintiff by failing to properly train that teacher on the correct, effective, and most appropriate method of treatment, management, and control of autistic and special needs students. As a result of Defendant’s negligent training of the teacher, Plaintiff was likewise negligently trained and instructed,” the lawsuit states.
It later notes, “Plaintiff has suffered extreme stress, mental anguish, and humiliation as a result of the very public accusations against her and subsequent investigation resulting from Defendant’s lack of training and supervision by Diana Ellis, Sharon Dunn, Carol Muniz, and Natalie Webb.
Both Areford and the classroom teacher, Diana Ellis, were named in a nine-count indictment handed down in September 2023.
Both women were charged with one count of maltreatment of a disabled child, one count of battery of a disabled child, and one count of conspiracy for an alleged Nov. 16, 2022 classroom incident.
Individually, Areford and Ellis were also charged with one count of maltreatment of a disabled child and one count of battery of a disabled child resulting from an incident involving a second child that allegedly occurred on Jan. 10, 2023.
Ellis faced additional counts of the same regarding an alleged third incident on Jan. 23 involving the second child.
Another teacher’s aide, Sharon Dunn, was indicted in January 2024 on four counts of battery of a disabled child for incidents stemming from December 2022.
In August 2025, Dunn agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts of battery of a disabled child. She received a suspended prison sentence of one-to-five years for each count and was placed on four years probation. Dunn cannot seek employment in which she has a direct relationship or supervisory role over children as a condition of her probation. She must also submit to random drug/alcohol testing and complete 200 hours community service.
According to court documents from April 6, Ellis similarly pleaded guilty to two felony counts of battery of a disabled child and received suspended prison sentences for each. Ellis was given five years probation with similar conditions. However, in Ellis’ case, she was required to spend 48 hours incarcerated in regional jail and must complete 250 hours of community service.
As of late March, pretrial in Areford’s criminal case has been continued awaiting the conclusion of a civil suit arising from the allegations.
A March 23 filing from Areford’s lawyer in the criminal case notes “defense counsel is negotiating with the State to attempt to structure a possible plea agreement.”
