A former athletic director at Justin Garza High School in California has filed a lawsuit against the Central Unified School District, alleging he was wrongfully terminated and retaliated against after whistleblowing on an unauthorized surveillance camera in a student training room.
In the complaint filed last month in Fresno County Superior Court, Hovig Torigian claims he was “scapegoated” by district officials who failed to investigate his initial reports and later bullied him into resigning.
According to the lawsuit, the incident began in January 2024 when an athletic trainer installed a hidden camera in the training room without Torigian’s knowledge. The trainer reportedly set up the device to catch individuals stealing items from the facility. Torigian says he only discovered the camera’s existence when the trainer showed him footage of an assistant football coach urinating into a floor drain inside the room.
The complaint states that Torigian immediately reported the unauthorized camera to the school’s principal, ordered the trainer to remove the device, and restricted the assistant coach’s access to the room. However, Torigian alleges that school and district administrators took no formal action at the time.
It wasn’t until September 2024 – nine months later – that the district launched an investigation, a move Torigian claims occurred only after a parent raised the issue during a public meeting. Shortly after the investigation began, Torigian was placed on administrative leave.
The lawsuit characterizes the district’s subsequent probe as a “sham” designed to produce inaccurate findings and support a false narrative of wrongdoing by Torigian. The former director alleges he was then pressured by the assistant superintendent of human resources to step down, under the threat that the school board intended to fire him.
Torigian resigned on Oct. 31, 2024. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for whistleblower retaliation and wrongful termination, asserting that he was punished for reporting misconduct that his superiors chose to ignore.
The case highlights ongoing tensions regarding student privacy and administrative accountability within the Fresno-area district, which opened the $150 million Garza High campus in 2021.
“Plaintiff was scapegoated for reporting misconduct that his superiors and CUSD chose not to investigate after her timely reported it, and he was thereafter punished for his reports because they were not investigated appropriately by superiors,” according to Torigian’s complaint.
