Education

Heston sues Marion BOE for defamation: district human resources officer also files suit

FAIRMONT - For the past three years, Marion County Schools Superintendent Donna Heston and Kristin DeVaul, the district's administrative assistant for human resources, have said they’ve both been targeted unjustly by the county’s Board of Education.

Members Donna Costello, Kevin Rogers and the Rev. James Saunders, specifically.

The above trio, they said, have harassed them and monitored them unduly while also continually alleging an intimate relationship, which both women say is untrue.

Late Monday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for Northern West Virginia, Heston and DeVaul each gave an official answer to the BOE.

That's when they filed lengthy lawsuits against the board - a 42-page document by Heston and 24 pages for DeVaul - said Ryan J. Umina, the Morgantown attorney who is representing both.

"These are two women who answer, every working day, to the people they have been forced to sue," Umina said.

"As the complaints set out, for three-and-a-half years, three elected members of the board turned the authority of their offices on a false accusation about the private lives of the women," the attorney continued.

"Two of them [BOE members] drove to a high school and spent 98 minutes behind a closed door with a subordinate, disclosing how they intended to vote on the superintendent's contract before the public heard a word," Umina said.

Said contract talks this past February were contentious - even though the superintendent had received positive evaluations earlier from the board.

Tom Dragich and then-president George Boyles voted in favor of a three-year renewal.

Rogers and Costello - and Saunders, initially - cast nay votes, however.

Saunders, however, later reversed his vote to allow for a one-year extension. Heston will remain in her post through July 1, 2027.

Boyles has since retired from the board, and longtime educator and school employee advocate Sam Brunett is now weeks into his first term.

Any majority bias against Heston, though, may not change.

Saunders was also elected to a term of president by the board last month, and one of his first acts was to appoint both Rogers and Costello as his vice presidents.

Heston's suit says the rumors began on or about Jan. 29, 2023, when an assistant principal who had been facing a district reprimand sent an email to board members, alleging DeVaul, in her role as HR officer, had attempted to solicit a tryst between her, Heston and him - in exchange for a promotion.

DeVaul denies any such conversation or email.

Also from the Heston suit: The superintendent says Costello and Saunders directly commented on her sexuality and that Rogers had monitored her and DeVaul's social media accounts.

The trio didn't immediately respond to a request for comments Tuesday and Umina said any additional statements or communications from Heston or DeVaul would be made through his office.

Both women are seeking punitive damages, saying their professional reputations have been harmed by the actions of the board members.