A Somerton High School teacher fired for letting a bullied male cheerleader change clothes in her office bathroom instead of the boys' locker room will keep her teaching credentials, under a settlement reached with Arizona's state education board in August 2026. Alyssa Plaza was terminated from her job as a cheer coach and physical education teacher in April 2025, but state investigators later found that the Yuma Union High School District's original case against her was flawed.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the trouble began after the student's father contacted school staff in February 2025 to complain that a boy was being let into the girls' locker room. State board of education documents later found that account of what happened was inaccurate and incomplete. The boy in question, the only male cheerleader on the team, had been bullied over his sexual orientation and was never allowed to change in the girls' locker room or enter while female students were changing, per the same reporting.
The student, identified as Alejandro Perez-Parra, had complained to school administrators about bullying and homophobic harassment before Plaza stepped in, according to reporting on the case. That harassment had escalated to suicidal ideation, and the same account states the boy also received death threats from bullies. School administrators had told him to take alternate routes to class rather than addressing the harassment directly, the Sacramento Bee reports, and the boy suffered severe mental health issues as the bullying continued.
A Coach's Emergency Decision
Plaza allowed the boy to use a restroom attached to her office to avoid the bullies rather than send him into the boys' bathroom and locker room, the Sacramento Bee reported. She was placed on administrative leave in February 2025 and instructed not to contact students during the investigation that followed. Plaza said she did not send a message that reached students through the cheer team's Instagram account during that period, though the district maintained she had.
Eric Patten, a spokesperson for the Yuma Union High School District, said the district was legally obligated to report unprofessional conduct to the state, which triggers an investigation by the state board of education whenever such a report is filed. The district did not recommend suspending Plaza's credentials, according to the seed reporting, though Plaza's lawyer, Gary Husk, said the district had in fact recommended that the state suspend them — a discrepancy the record does not resolve.
Board Votes to Fire Her Anyway
The Yuma Union High School District governing board voted 4-0 in April 2025 to accept Superintendent Tim Brienza's recommendation to terminate Plaza, according to KAWC. The board proceeded, and board member David Lara was absent from that meeting. Brienza supported the board's decision to terminate Plaza that April.
The firing sparked immediate backlash. An online petition launched on Change.org by a cheer team parent gathered just under 24,000 signatures demanding Plaza's reinstatement, KAWC's report notes, and Plaza started a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $2,100 to hire legal representation as she fought the district's effort to suspend her teaching credentials for five years.
At the time of her termination, state records showed Plaza held an Emergency Secondary Teaching Certificate in Physical Education for grades 6 through 12, valid through late June 2025, per the station's report. The state board of education had issued Plaza emergency teaching certifications beginning in the 2023-2024 school year — temporary permits that allow people to work in districts facing teacher shortages while they pursue full certification.
State Board Finds District's Case Incomplete
The turning point came when state documents from the Arizona State Board of Education investigation revealed that the district's original allegations against Plaza were incomplete and inaccurate, paving the way for the August 2026 settlement restoring her credentials. Under that settlement, Plaza received a letter of censure for unprofessional conduct and completed a professional development course, but she will keep her teaching credentials under the agreement with the state board.
Plaza described the last year and a half as pure torture, according to the Sacramento Bee, and said she would help the boy again if given the option. The settlement addresses only her state licensure — the district's decision to terminate her employment remains intact, underscoring the distinct boundary between local school employment decisions and state professional licensure.
Wider Context in a Growing District
Somerton High School opened in August 2023 as a $68 million facility, according to McCarthy Building Companies, serving a predominantly agricultural community that had previously lacked its own local high school for decades, with students formerly bused up to 10 miles to Kofa or Cibola high schools in Yuma.
Plaza's case has left a lasting mark on how Somerton High and the district weigh student safety against strict locker-room policy in the years since her firing.
