A Florida teen endured three invasive strip-searches by her high school's assistant principal after staff allegedly spread false rumors that she was pregnant and molested by her adoptive father, a new federal lawsuit claims. 

Nicholas Dayton filed the suit on Nov. 14 in Orlando's U.S. District Court against the Brevard County School Board, Assistant Principal Carrie Humphrys at Eau Gallie High School, and 10 others, alleging violations of his 14-year-old daughter M.D.'s Fourth Amendment rights, racial harassment, and retaliation for the family's complaints.​

Coleman Watson, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, told Atlanta Black Star that M.D., an honor student with a 3.8 GPA who is also biracial, faced repeated harassment from fellow students, calling her slurs like "n****r" and "black monkey."

The harassment reportedly began in 2023 when she attended L.B. Johnson Middle School, where staff were also said to have ignored other reports from students of color. 

After transferring to Eau Gallie High in August 2024, the bullying toward M.D. and other students of color continued despite numerous complaints. 

Dayton believes that in retaliation for being a “whistleblower,” school officials called the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) on the family that September. ​​It was alleged that M.D. was pregnant and had been molested by her father, prompting a major investigation. A pediatrician evaluated M.D. as required by law and proved the accusations to be false.

Despite the debunked rumors, court documents alleged that staff continued to interview students, fueling gossip among the teens’ peers.

Then the strip searches began. 

Atlanta Black Star shares that, under Florida law, a strip-search is specified as “having an arrested person remove or arrange some or all of his or her clothing so as to permit a visual or manual inspection of the genitals; buttocks; anus; breasts, in the case of a female; or undergarments of such person.”

M.D. was strip-searched a total of three times in late September and October 2024, demanding she expose her breasts—once alone, once with a male staffer watching—violating policy requiring same-gender witnesses and parental notice, with no contraband found.​

Dayton emailed Superintendent Mark Rendell on Oct. 1: "We are livid! Our daughter was made to lift her shirt, pull out her bra and shake in front of a man." Despite Principal Keith Barton's Oct. 31 apology admitting policy breaches, the school now denies the strip-searches occurred.

“While we cannot comment on the specifics of that case, we want to be absolutely clear: Brevard Public Schools does not strip-search students,” said Chief Strategic Communications Officer Janet Murnaghan in an email to Florida Today. “We have never conducted strip-searches, and we never will. The safety, dignity, and well-being of our students remain our highest priority.”

The experience left his daughter traumatized, and soon after, M.D. was placed in therapy. “None of the searches were done with parental consent,” he said. “It is yet another example of the school retaliating against Mr. Dayton for simply standing up for his daughter.”

No contraband was ever found.

The school board, Carrie Humphrys, and the other 10 unnamed employees have until Dec. 6 to file a response.