Officials accuse Marion board members of harassment

FAIRMONT – Two Marion County school officials have filed separate lawsuits accusing three members of the county Board of Education of waging a campaign of harassment and retaliation built around what they call a fabricated same‑sex relationship rumor involving the superintendent and the district’s human resources administrator.

Superintendent Dr. Donna Heston and Human Resources Administrative Assistant Kristin DeVaul filed their lawsuits in federal court, alleging three elected school board members targeted them with sex‑based discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation after seizing on a false accusation that the women were in an intimate relationship.

They say the three board members – President James Saunders, Vice President Kevin Rogers and Co-Vice President Donna Costello – advanced and repeated the rumor, interrogated them about their private lives, monitored their social media and used their official powers over contracts, pay and working conditions in ways that violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Fourteenth Amendment and the West Virginia Human Rights Act.

Heston’s amended complaint, filed August 3, alleges sex discrimination, harassment and retaliation tied to the board’s decisions on her superintendent contract.

She says the three board members “seized upon and spread a false accusation” that she was in an intimate relationship with DeVaul and then demanded she recuse herself, predetermined not to renew her multi‑year contract despite a positive evaluation and ultimately extended her only a one‑year term for the 2026‑27 school year while continuing to subject her to “gender‑based hostility.”

DeVaul’s complaint, filed August 1, focuses on her treatment as the HR administrative assistant. DeVaul alleges the same three board members confined her to her office, barred her from job‑related travel, surveilled her social media activity and paid her less than male employees with “equal or lesser credentials” after they embraced false allegations that she owed her position and professional standing to an intimate relationship with the superintendent rather than to her 18 years of work in the school system.

Both women say they filed discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and with the West Virginia Human Rights Commission. Both say they received right‑to‑sue notices from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on May 5.

In DeVaul’s filing, she traces the escalation of the rumor to a January 29, 2023, email from then‑Assistant Principal Ian Harned, who was facing pending disciplinary action.

According to the complaint, Harned emailed board members with fabricated claims that DeVaul had solicited him for a sexual “threesome” implicating Heston and promised him a principal’s job in exchange. DeVaul asserts the allegations were “fabricated in their entirety” and that, from the beginning, they “sexualized the professional relationship between the two women and targeted them together.”

The complaints allege the board majority adopted the allegations “by silence,” refused to correct the rumor and then repeated and amplified it in public and private settings, including, DeVaul says, statements by the Board’s president as recently as late last month.

On July 27 after Saunders allegedly failed to disconnect a phone call, DeVaul says she heard him over the open line and later saw a written acknowledgment that he had told others “people say” the superintendent “is” a lesbian.

In her compliant, Heston says she overheard Saunders tell others, “She’s the lesbian, and I hate that for her because she’s beautiful, but to each his own.” She says she later received a text in which he wrote that he had said “people say she is” and “people say she’s having it with my good friend Bobby.”

DeVaul’s complaint says Costello tied her professional appointment directly to the fabricated relationship.

“I don’t think you cannot know that when you (Heston) appointed Kristin DeVaul or recommended Kristin for that position ... I think that’s when shit hit the fan,” the complaint quotes Costello from a recorded conversation. “The good old boy network still exists. It’s just taken on a different face.”

During the recorded conversation, Costello also tells Heston to “set the affair aside” and that “personally, I don’t care.” He also tells her to “put your big girl panties on”  

The premise of the interrogation — that a woman’s professional advancement is explained by a sexual relationship rather than by her qualifications — is itself a stereotype about women.

“A false rumor that a female employee’s professional standing rests on a sexual relationship rather than on merit invokes a deeply rooted stereotype about women,” DeVaul’s complaint states.

The complaints also detail a July 2025 meeting in which Costello and Rogers allegedly met privately for about 98 minutes with an assistant principal, disclosed how they intended to vote on Heston’s contract and discussed monitoring Heston’s and DeVaul’s social media with Costello remarking, “We’re not supposed to say stuff.”

On February 16, 2026, after a positive evaluation, the board—by 3–2 votes from Costello, Rogers and Saunders—rejected three‑, two‑ and one‑year renewal motions for Heston. A motion to let her contract expire and search for a new superintendent failed 2–2 with Saunders abstaining.

After Heston asserted claims through counsel, the board reconsidered on March 5 and approved only a one‑year contract by a 3–2 vote, with Costello and Rogers voting no.

Both complaints say the school board holds final policymaking authority over employment, compensation and contract terms for district personnel, including the superintendent and staff positions such as DeVaul’s. The plaintiffs argue that the votes and directives of Costello, Rogers and Saunders therefore constitute official acts of the board under federal civil‑rights law.

Heston, who has led the district since July 1, 2021, says she now serves under a one‑year contract for the 2026‑27 school year with total compensation of about $164,440. She contends the shortened term, following a previously multi‑year agreement, is part of the alleged retaliation.

DeVaul, who has worked in Marion County’s school system for 18 years and has nieces and nephews enrolled in county schools, alleges not only emotional harm from the sustained rumor campaign but also economic damages from suppressed pay and restrictions on her professional duties.

Both women seek damages, attorney fees and declaratory and injunctive relief, asking the court to find the board and the three members violated their civil rights. They also seek to bar further discrimination and retaliation.

They are being represented by Ryan J. Umina of Umina Legal in Morgantown. Both cases have been assigned to U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case numbers 1:26‑cv‑00092 (Heston) and 1:26‑cv‑00093 (DeVaul)