Ofa Taimani, a former instructional vice principal secretary, filed a tort claim against the District on Tuesday. The claim alleges discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination and seeks a minimum of $70,000 for both economic and emotional damages. This claim is now the eighth ongoing legal conflict the District is facing.
Taimani, who spent 10 years at M-A and three years at Sequoia High School, was terminated without benefits by the District on March 31, 2025. At the time she was still on leave for a work-related injury. Her termination came almost two years after being accused of mishandling an arrested student’s independent education plan (IEP) without parental consent in April 2023.
She is the second M-A employee, alongside former basketball coach Mike Molieri, to be accused of violating the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and student privacy laws. Molieri also filed a tort claim against the District this past April.
Taimani denies the District’s accusations. She instead claims she was targeted by the District for her relationship with Molieri—who is also her godfather—and advocacy for him at board meetings. Additionally, she claims to have been targeted for being a woman of color.
The tort claim also alleges that two M-A administrators leaked the same students’ IEP without consent, violating student privacy laws.
“The two M-A administrators that were involved in that case were white, and not one of them was accused of or investigated for mishandling [the student’s] files,” Taimani said. “Then, out of nowhere, I get accused of it, and it’s a quick investigation.”
Taimani was interviewed by former District Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Todd Beal about the IEP mishandling accusations on Nov. 17, 2023. That meeting, according to Taimani, drove her to experience panic attacks, anxiety, and depression.
“I forgot to breathe, I thought it was a heart attack,” she said.
Taimani continued to experience panic attacks and mental health issues, causing her to go on a work-related injury leave in Nov. 2023. Upon returning in April 2024, Taimani was moved to the attendance office for the remainder of the school year.
The District followed up with an investigation into the accusations, concluding in June 2024 that Taimani was responsible for the leaked IEP files. Taimani appealed the decision, asserting during public comment at the Aug. 2024 board meeting that there was never a written complaint documenting the accusations. The Board did not overturn the investigation.
That August, Taimani was moved again, this time to the counseling department, where she shared an office with a 504 coordinator. This meant she frequently had to vacate the space during 504 meetings with students and or parents.
Taimani claims she was also tasked with assisting the 504 coordinators, despite not receiving any formal training in the area, even after allegedly requesting it.
Her mental health and panic attacks continued to intensify, causing her to go on another work-related injury leave in Sept. 2024. While still on leave, Taimani received a letter from the District alerting her she had been placed on the 39-month medical rehire list without pay nor benefits, leaving her without health insurance to treat her various mental health struggles.
“I have never heard of anyone getting off that list,” she said. “Being on that list doesn’t mean anything, I was fired.”
“I lost everything. I worked so hard to be the best, healthy version that I can be. But it almost felt like I was at square one,” Taimani added.
The M-A Chronicle reached out to the District for comment but did not receive a response in time for the publication of this article.
Ofa is one of the best employees I have ever come across in my entire work career. She set an amazing tone at MA and as a hiring manager, I would jump at the chance to have her on my team. Everyone loved her! I was always happier after interacting with Ofa, I always saw her put in 200%, and she is absolutely an employee that should have been retained at all costs. Words cannot describe the failure this is and the way the school culture shifted for the worse after the administrators corruptly orchestrated all of this. All of Ofa’s systems were on point and she was extremely efficient and effective at her role. It would not be a stretch to say that in her role she is probably one of the strongest people in the entire Bay Area – period. I would absolutely testify on her behalf to support this lawsuit. I have evidence I collected myself going back years and I have spoken to others who also have lots of evidence. There is no way this district can defend these claims if they truly look into everything people have brought forward – and they know it.
Administrators, the superintendent, and board members need to face consequences and they know it but they have acted in a way where they are avoiding that simple, mature, professional outcome and making things worse every step of the way as a result. Crystal and the board hypocritically espouse concepts like merit, academic rigor, but shrink and disappear when its time to do real work and lead through change that needs to happen. Many of them are making what amounts to a monthly salary for most people in a single week, yet they can’t even have basic conversations with their community when individuals risk coming forward to create real change. The way administrators turned their back on Ofa reflects SUHSD’s culture overall.
Remember that in any group or organization, culture is defined by the worst behavior that is tolerated, not what is prohibited. If leaders or members of a group permit negative actions and behaviors or shaky morals, these become the norm, establishing a baseline for what is considered acceptable. Therefore, to create a positive culture, one must actively, strongly and unapologetically address and stop the behaviors that are detrimental to its values and standards. Crystal, the board, and administrators have truly not done that and the proof is a growing list of lawsuits that has to be a historic record by now.
In SUHSD, many employees of color experience being tokenized and put on display to promote a false image of equity, but when they push for real change and try to do their roles at the highest level, they are ostracized, lied about, and pushed out. The district is essentially asking people who are serious about change to come in, play a role for appearances, and then look the other way when it comes to real solutions. Why? Because it makes certain people who are pretending and getting paid too much to not really do their jobs uncomfortable. The school culture that exists promotes ego and hierarchy instead of excellence and being at the top of one’s game. Rumors are spread about employees of color who have become whistleblowers and leadership allows that to happen to maintain cover-ups. Employees of color are recruited with pitches about equity, interviews promote the idea that they can develop ideas and solutions. They are also closer to the communities who experience systemic harms. These are harms that much of the larger community is never informed of. Instead of confronting this head on, the district leadership takes advantage of that lack of awareness. This leads to issues being brought up in cycles and reappearing over the decades.
When Ofa refused to go along with corruption and stood up for herself, she did what any great, high level, top of their game employee should do. If they actually had respect for her and valued her contributions and dedication, they would have never let things get to this point. But her courage and unwillingness to be pushed around went against the district’s expectation that people of color will stay silent or disappear when they are mistreated, ignored, or gaslit. Every time people like Crystal Leach, Todd Beal, Karl Losekoot, and Emily Rigotti ignore or dismiss these harms, or even participate in perpetuating them, they send a message that speaking up genuinely and being ignored is ok, that retaliation and silencing are the norm, that students losing resources and families being ignored is acceptable, and that protecting a false image matters more than protecting the community.