Teacher who raised concerns about strip searches put on leave by school district: report

A lawyer for a Las Vegas-area teacher says she “was told to go home” in retaliation for having reported alleged student strip searches by administrators and staff, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Friday.

Shushan Sadjadi, a math teacher at Garside Junior High School, was put on paid administrative leave Friday, according to her lawyer, Brian Berman, the report says. The Review-Journal has been reporting on Sadjadi’s allegations since last fall.

“I presume they’re setting her up for termination,” Berman said, according to the newspaper. “If I had to make up the facts, I couldn’t dream up a better case of retaliation.”

“Clark County School District spokesman Tod Story said the district could not comment because it was a personnel matter, the newspaper reported. However, both Story and school principal have said they could not substantiate Sadjadi’s allegations.

“But another teacher also reported on Feb. 11 one of her students had experienced an ‘uncomfortable’ search, according to a school district document, the newspaper reported.

“Sadjadi, who teaches seventh- and eighth graders, told the Review-Journal this week that both male and female students voluntarily told her about uncomfortable searches by administrators and staff members after suspicions of marijuana use,” it reported.

The district provided the newspaper with documents accusing Sadjadi “of being late for work, giving out her personal phone number to students and not following proper policies with her student entrepreneur club’s banking funds.” It also accused her of interviewing the students before taking their complaints to administrators.

School district regulations say strip searches can only be conducted in “extraordinary circumstances when necessary to avoid an immediate threat or danger to safety, welfare or health and less intrusive means are not practical,” the paper reported.