Employees at East Moriches Elementary School testified Thursday during the murder trial of Angela Pollina that they were concerned for the safety of the Valva brothers for years.

Edward Schneyer, the principal of the school that Thomas and Anthony Valva attended, testified that both were happy children in 2017. He said their conditions declined after that until Thomas Valva's death in 2020.

Several Child Protective Services reports were made about the boys coming to school soaked in urine, with bruises and cuts and always cold.

Schneyer also said that one of the brothers revealed that they were being forced to sleep in the garage.

The principal says one teacher gave a sweatshirt to Anthony Valva because he was cold. He says Pollina spotted the child in it and demanded that it not be given to him.

Thomas Valva died of hypothermia in January 2020 after being hosed down outside when it was below freezing. This came after months of the boy sleeping in an unheated garage.

Pollina pleaded not guilty to the charges she is facing, and her lawyer tells News 12, the child's father, Michael Valva, is the one responsible for his death.

Defense attorney Matthew Tuohy also said the school staff wasn't there on the day that Thomas Valva died.

"Obviously they are going to give a little perspective about the struggles the boys had and probably with the way they were treated, but the reality is is that it doesn't go to the day in question," Tuohy says.

Schneyer also said during his testimony that most times there was contact with the family, both Pollina and Michael Valva would be on a three-way call with them.

The principal, who is also a volunteer firefighter, heard the call about Thomas Valva come over the radio and said that address was familiar to him because of the CPS reports he had filed using it.