Raleigh County custodian Gary Evans suspended 10 days after board hearing on boundary complaints

Larry Ford, president of the Raleigh County Board of Education, presided over a public hearing on a superintendent recommendation that custodian Gary Evans be suspended for conduct the administration said crossed professional boundaries with students.

Administration witnesses told the board multiple students independently reported similar patterns of behavior: non-educational personal conversations about family and appearance, giving snacks, drinks or small amounts of money, social-media contact, off-campus encounters, and limited instances of physical contact that made students uncomfortable. Principal Ryan Stafford summarized interviews with five students and a cafeteria video the school provided, saying the video showed a student repeatedly touching Evans’s head and at one point placing a broom handle between his legs. “There have been some boundaries crossed,” Stafford testified.

Human-resources director Amy Samco summarized the policies and training the district relied on, citing West Virginia code sections 18A-2-7 and 18A-2-8 as the statutory basis for superintendent disciplinary recommendations and listing State Board policy 5902 (employee code of conduct), policy 4373 (expected behavior in safe and supportive schools) and the district’s electronic-communications and nutrition/wellness policies as relevant standards.

Superintendent Serena Starer told the board she reviewed the investigation, met with Evans and watched the video in her office. She said the record, including prior disciplinary contact two years earlier, showed Mr. Evans “crossed boundaries between yourself and students and is in violation of the following policies,” and recommended a 10-day suspension.

Evans testified in his own defense and repeatedly denied the allegations, saying the footage would show he “done no wrong” and calling the proceeding “about revenge.” He acknowledged giving snacks and once paying a student $5 for reciting the Ten Commandments but denied the claimed social-media contacts and touching reported by students.

Administration counsel argued the record showed a pattern — not a single, isolated allegation — that included prior admonitions and a failure to intervene when a student behaved suggestively toward Evans in the cafeteria. The administration asked the board to uphold the superintendent’s recommendation.

After a closed deliberation, the board voted to approve the superintendent’s recommendation: to ratify administrative leave and impose a 10-day suspension without pay for Gary Evans. The board took the vote by voice; the motion carried.

The board also handled a separate personnel matter later in the session, approving suspension without pay and termination of contract for another employee, Christina Gano.

What happens next: The board concluded its hearing and the personnel decisions stand as the board recorded them. Any further appeals or personnel appeals procedures were not detailed in the public record.