Lawsuit alleges mistreatment of student

The family of a student who was expelled from Corona del Mar High in the aftermath of a cheating scandal there is alleging in a lawsuit filed against the district that school officials illegally interrogated the student for several hours without allowing food, water or access to medication.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Orange County Superior Court on May 9, alleges that school officials intimidated, coerced statements from and illegally threatened the student with expulsion without proper evidence. The parents and student were not identified by name in court papers.

Eleven juniors and seniors opted to sign stipulated expulsion agreements in January prohibiting them from returning to CdM this school year but allowing them to transfer to another school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

By signing an agreement, the students waived their right to appeal the expulsion, the district has said.

However, the complaint filed by the family states that the student’s agreement was signed under duress and therefore is fraudulent and should not be upheld.

The family’s attorney, Mark Rosen, declined to comment on the case.

The complaint filed by the family paints a picture of the events that transpired after school officials became aware of the covert grade changing late last year.

In December, the school resource officer pulled the junior from class, took the student to a closet-sized science supply room, demanded the student’s cellphone and password and proceeded to ask about the student’s involvement with Irvine tutor Timothy Lai, the lawsuit says.

Lai is accused of providing students with keyloggers that were placed on the back of teachers’ computers and used to obtain logins and passwords, which were later used to alter grades and access exams.

Police have been unable to find the tutor since the case became public.

According to the complaint, the school resource officer denied the student’s request for parent involvement in the questioning process.

“This constitutes an illegal arrest and triggered the student’s right to talk to a parent and an attorney without further interrogation,” Rosen wrote in the lawsuit.

The junior, who is referred to as “Doe 1 Student” in the documents, was denied access to food, water and medicine for attention deficit disorder during questioning, according to the lawsuit.

“[Doe 1] was having anxiety and was thirsty, and had not eaten since 6 a.m.,” the papers state. “As the day progressed, the absence of sustenance and deprivation of [Doe 1’s] medication became more aggravated.”

Steven Montanez, the attorney for Newport-Mesa Unified, refuted the family’s claims that the district violated the student’s rights.

“The district doesn’t do things like that to its students,” he said, declining to talk about the specific lawsuit.

Newport-Mesa Unified policies prohibit public comment on pending litigation.

After several hours of questioning that day, the student wrote a statement for school officials, providing information about the student’s involvement in the cheating, court documents state.

The student’s admission and the fact that the student had been named as one of the “Bakers” were key pieces of evidence that led to the student’s expulsion from CdM, according to district documents filed in court.

“Bakers” was a self-given nickname for the group of students allegedly involved in the keylogging, which the group called “Operation Cupcake.”

The student used Lai as a tutor to help with sophomore Advanced Placement history during the last school year. The student denied involvement in breaking into the school to place keylogging devices on teachers’ computers, as some students are alleged to have done.

In the written statement, the student outlined the student’s involvement in the cheating, which included requesting that the tutor boost by 1% to 3% the grades on a few tests and assignments.

“All in all, I probably altered (well Tim did) my grade to boost my grade 2% in [the history class],” the student wrote in the attachment to the district’s response to the lawsuit. “I am extremely disappointed in myself for changing the few assignments I did in [the class].... I am so sorry.”

The student later retracted the statements, instead saying that Lai changed the grades without the student’s knowledge, and when the student became angry and asked him to change them back, the tutor made the student vow not to disclose what was going on.

Lai threatened to hack into the student’s parent’s computer to make it look as though they were involved in the grade changes if the student gave the school any information about him, according to the lawsuit.

The conversation scared the student, according to court papers, and the student decided to stop attending group tutoring sessions.

In addition to the lawsuit, which hasn’t yet been served to Newport-Mesa Unified, the family also filed a petition for a writ of mandate that would allow the student to attend prom at Newport Harbor High School and register before August for fall classes at CdM. August is when the stipulated expulsion agreement expires.

The stipulated expulsion agreements barred students from participating in any extracurricular or school activities, including prom.

Judge John Gastelum on Tuesday denied the family’s request for a writ of mandate. The reason for the denial was not available.