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FAIRMONT - The Marion County Board of Education earlier this week suspended the contract of a county teacher currently jailed on a child pornography charge.
Michael Joseph Carpenter, the choir director of East Fairmont High School, has been housed at the North Central Regional Jail following his arrest at the school on Oct. 20 by West Virginia State Police.
Possessing child pornography in West Virginia is a felony.
Superintendent Donna Heston put the action before Board of Education members during Monday night's meeting.
"The superintendent recommends that Michael Carpenter be suspended without pay indefinitely for violating the employee code of conduct," Heston said.
Board members agreed unanimously to uphold the suspension.
Carpenter, meanwhile, remains housed in the Doddridge County facility on a $500,000 bond.
He is presumed innocent until proven guilty and was still listed as a faculty member on the school website as of Wednesday morning.
A series of explicit videos allegedly sent over the summer by the 43-year-old music educator led to the arrest, court documents showed previously.
Carpenter, according to the complaint, was alleged to have sent "multiple" videos depicting children and adults in sexually compromising positions through his account with the Kik messaging application on July 25.
Several videos from that day were reported to law enforcement.
Meanwhile, another 16 sent previously through the account and retrieved through search warrant carry similar subject matter - with Carpenter allegedly depicting self-pleasure in his music classroom at East in some.
A felony conviction would lead to an automatic termination, Heston said.
"We are fully cooperating with law enforcement," the superintendent said in a statement following the arrest last month. "The safety and well-being of our students remain a priority."
Carpenter, who previously taught in Arizona before returning to his home state and hometown, had received accolades for his work as an educator over the years.