by Kate Evans
Two Morgan County students were expelled from school after the Morgan County School Board held separate executive session hearings on October 9 involving student discipline, suspension and/or expulsion.
The school board accepted Superintendent David Banks’ recommendation to expel the students involved in cases E2025-01 and E2025-02. The board voted to expel each student after coming back into open session after a closed expulsion hearing.
Banks said that both students were expelled from school, but he couldn’t provide any specifics about the students’ age or grade, school, gender or reason for expulsion.
The expulsions followed two separate incidents of threats against county schools in September, but school officials did not connect the incidents to the expulsions.
Banks said their attorney advised that the only statement the superintendent could share is “that student disciplinary matters are protected by federal (FERPA) and state law (West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) 4350), so providing any specifics related to a student including the instance are protected, other than the Board of Education voted to expel a student in accordance with W. Va. Code 18A-5-1 and WVDE Policy 4373.”
The board also entered into executive session to discuss personnel matters after the two expulsion hearings were concluded. That session didn’t result in any public action.
