NEED TO KNOW
- The School Board of Brevard County is being sued by a Florida high school student and her father, alleging the student was strip-searched four times
- The father also alleges that school officials falsely reported to the Florida Department of Children and Families that he had impregnated his daughter
- The father alleges that even after a pediatrician said his daughter was not and never had been pregnant, school staff spread this rumor by interviewing students about the false claim
A Florida high school student claims she was strip-searched four times by school officials — and now she’s suing.
That is just one of the allegations made by a female student, identified in the suit only by her initials, M.D., and her father in a federal lawsuit against the School Board of Brevard County and assistant principal Carrie Humphrys of Eau Gallie High School.
The complaint, a copy of which was obtained by PEOPLE, also accuses the school of falsely reporting the student’s father to the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) and accusing him of molesting his daughter and getting her pregnant.
The father also alleges that school staff then spread this false rumor around school by conducting interviews with students even after a pediatrician produced a record to show M.D. was not — and never had been — pregnant.
Brevard Public Schools’ Director of Communications Yvete Cruz tells PEOPLE that district employees “have never conducted strip searches, and we never will,” while declining to comment on the other allegations made in the complaint.
The complaint alleges that the problems between the student’s family and school district date back to August 2023, when the student was attending Johnson Middle School in Melbourne, a city located approximately 50 miles southeast of Orlando.
The father claims he reported that his daughter and others were being subjected to frequent racial slurs and misogynistic comments from fellow students, but the school did nothing in response.
He then filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against the district, alleging an “ongoing lack of action to protect students of color” and accusing Brevard County Schools of “falsifying documents” regarding reports of violence and bullying, according to that complaint.
The father accuses the school board of labeling his family as “whistleblowers” and launching a campaign of retaliatory measures against him and his daughter.
The complaint alleges that these measures were a concerted effort that began when M.D. started her freshman year at Eau Gallie High School in 2024.
Examples provided in the complaint include allegations that several teachers “changed M.D.’s grades to lower grades and refused to correct them until [the father] produced records confirming M.D. did the work” and one teacher making “a disparaging comment about [the father] for unknown reasons.”
The complaint alleges that on Sept. 18, 2024, “school official(s) at Eau Gallie High School called DCF and stated that M.D. was pregnant and molested by [the father].”
An investigation was opened by DCF, according to the father and local police became involved as well, coming to the house and questioning M.D., according to the complaint.
The father claims that he took M.D. to her pediatrician, who produced a report stating she was not and never had been pregnant. But even after producing this report to officials, the school began interviewing students about the allegation allowing “the pregnancy and molestation accusation to spread like wildfire,” according to the complaint.
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Three weeks later, M.D. was subjected to her first of four strip searches, alleges the complaint — one of which was allegedly conducted while a man was in the room.
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M.D. was allegedly made to lift her shirt and expose her breasts each time, while sometimes shaking so that possible contraband might fall out.
There was never any contraband discovered on M.D.’s person, and at no point was the father alerted to the fact that his daughter would be strip-searched by the school, the complaint alleges.
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A letter purportedly sent by Principal Keith Barton to the father after one of these alleged strip searches — which was filed as an exhibit in the complaint — says that “staff did not follow district policy” requiring searches be conducted by and in the presence of individuals “of the student’s gender.”
The letter does not specify the nature of that search.
Read the full article here


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