A 14-year-old Florida high school student says she was strip-searched four separate times by school officials — and she and her father are now suing the district over what they describe as a pattern of retaliation and misconduct.
The student, identified in the lawsuit only as M.D., and her father filed a federal complaint against the School Board of Brevard County and Eau Gallie High School assistant principal Carrie Humphrys. The suit alleges that school staff subjected M.D. to multiple strip searches, including one in which a male was present, and that the searches were conducted without notifying her parent.
Beyond the searches, the complaint claims the school falsely reported to the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) that M.D. was pregnant and that her father had molested her. The lawsuit says this accusation was untrue and that, even after a pediatrician’s documentation showed M.D. was not and had never been pregnant, school personnel continued questioning students, allowing the rumor to spread throughout campus.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(707x511:709x513):format(webp)/nicholas-dayton-112125-1-a747c5752ab04cde82c12ed14ef0776d.jpg)
In a statement, Brevard Public Schools’ communications director Yvete Cruz said district employees do not conduct strip searches and declined to address the remaining allegations.
According to the complaint, tensions between the family and the district began in August 2023 when M.D. attended Johnson Middle School in Melbourne. Her father says he repeatedly reported that his daughter and other students were facing racial slurs and misogynistic remarks from peers, but he claims the school failed to intervene.
He later filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education accusing the district of not protecting students of color and of falsifying records related to violence and bullying. The lawsuit argues that after this, district officials labeled the family as “whistleblowers” and began retaliating against both father and daughter.
The suit says those alleged retaliatory actions escalated in 2024 when M.D. started her freshman year at Eau Gallie High School. Examples listed include claims that teachers lowered M.D.’s grades and would not restore them until her father produced proof she had completed assignments, along with an allegation that one teacher made an unexplained disparaging remark about him.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(764x331:766x333):format(webp)/nicholas-dayton-112125-2-c7519c05b58d4dc48f08886ca8dc2b6d.jpg)
The complaint further alleges that on Sept. 18, 2024, Eau Gallie staff contacted DCF to report that M.D. was pregnant and had been abused by her father. DCF opened an investigation, and local police reportedly visited the family’s home to interview M.D.
Her father says he immediately took her to a pediatrician, who provided written confirmation that she was not and had never been pregnant. Despite that, the lawsuit claims the school continued interviewing students about the allegation, fueling speculation and social fallout for M.D.
About three weeks later, the lawsuit says, M.D. experienced the first of four strip searches. The complaint alleges that during each search she was forced to lift her shirt and expose her breasts, and at times was instructed to shake so that any possible contraband could fall out. No contraband was ever found, the suit says.
The complaint also states that the school never informed M.D.’s father before these searches, and that the procedures violated district policy. A letter filed with the lawsuit — reportedly sent by Principal Keith Barton after one of the incidents — acknowledges that staff did not follow rules requiring searches to be conducted by, and in the presence of, employees of the student’s gender. The letter does not detail what occurred during the search.
