Calhoun County residents met twice in prayer with local leadership and Pastor Barry Miller on Wednesday, September 17th, 2025 in preparation for Wednesday evening’s Calhoun County Commission meeting, feeling the pressure of it’s citizens who are reeling from the news of abused children by an elected official, school teacher and foster parents and failures of the agencies assigned to protect them.
It’s not the first time that this community or another has experienced the news of abused children. But this time has torn at the very heart of an already worn down community. It wasn’t only the news of this heinous accused act, but it was also multiple reports coming in of over a decade of multiple agencies refusing to take action when other accusations were made, and many against the same individual who stands accused now.
Parents, grandparents, local childcare workers and citizens spoke to both Commissioner Eric Lupardus and Craig Arthur to question what actions and involvement the County was willing to take to stop future incidents.
The entire meeting can be viewed on the Youtube page of WCHS TV here.
According to the families accusing Jacob McCumbers of grooming, assaulting and inappropriate behaviors with their children, those events had been occurring since 2009 with reports made to Calhoun County Schools, Calhoun Child Protective Service and police that seemingly disappeared.
When asked why they didn’t report it further, there were reports of suspected retaliation by CPS workers or fears that the story would follow children and siblings throughout the school system with further retaliation.
A Clay county grandmother, spoke of the removal of her grandson from her son’s home in Calhoun, the actions and what she believed were failures by the West Virginia Department of Child Protective services that lead to her grandson now possibly being a victim of sexual abuse. Her grandson was removed without consideration for her being a caretaker because of her age, she said, and expressed her desire to see her grandson again.
A well prepared and out spoken grandmother, Brenda Holcomb, opened the binder of her documented effort of bringing the grooming and behaviors of Jacob McCumbers and other incidents with CPS workers to light, that went unanswered. She pleaded with the Commissioners to take action on the removal of Jacob McCumbers as County Commissioner, and provided her records to anyone who wanted to copy them.
Calhoun School Board Member Horst Motz apologized for the confusion during a Monday night school board meeting where parents had came to speak, but were disallowed because they hadn’t signed in with a request. He encouraged their return and told parents that they (the school board) were going to do more to help everyone understand procedure. He explained that even if they had the opportunity to speak, little could have been said in return by board members due to the School Board procedures in meetings. His apology was met with applause by the audience, appreciating his effort to connect with community.
Calhoun Commissioners Lupardus and Arthur gave their heartfelt condolences to the families having to experience this community tragedy and under the advisement of their Attorney Kevin Harris, the commission announced it would be seeking a resolution to remove Jacob McCumbers from his role as Calhoun County Commissioner.
Both commissioners should be removed and a special election done. McCumbers and Arthur need removed for their respective arrests.