SALEM, W.Va. — The Harrison County Sheriff’s Department arrested an employee of Miracle Meadows School on allegations of child abuse.
According to a news release from Harrison County prosecuting attorney Joe Shaffer’s office, Timothy Aaron Arrington, of Salem allegedly choked a child resident to the point of unconsciousness. He was charged with one count of child abuse by a custodian of a child.
Arrington was jailed after an arrest warrant was executed Thursday afternoon by the sheriff’s deputies with assistance from the WV State Police and Bridgeport police.
Some 19 children between the ages of 10 and 17 have been removed from the school and are currently in the custody of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services.
Miracle Meadows School is listed as a Christian boarding school affiliated as a Seventh-day Adventist supporting ministry. The students enrolled are boys and girls, 6 to 18 years of age, who “are experiencing defiance, dishonesty, school failure, trouble with the law, spiritual disinterest, poor social skills, adoption issues and other behavior that is harmful to them and to others,” according to the school’s website.
It operates year-round and can facilitate up to 40 students in two home-style dormitories, with 30 to 34 staff members.
Investigators are conducting a criminal probe into the treatment of all the children who resided at this school.