A Westlake High School teacher is suing Conejo Valley Unified School District, alleging she was placed on leave after raising concerns about how the administration handled students’ reports of sexual assault.
Lauren Zasadil accused the district of whistleblower retaliation, political speech retaliation and retaliation in violation of the California Education Code, demanding unspecified damages and a jury trial, according to the lawsuit.
Zasadil declined interview requests, but her attorney Martin Aarons said he hopes the lawsuit motivates other educators to continue speaking out on behalf of student safety with the knowledge that there are laws in place to protect them.
“We send our kids to school to be safe, and if there are failures in the system, then school districts and employers across the country should want teachers who are on the front lines to speak up to make the processes better,” he said. “What they did to her was wrong.”
Kimberly Gold, spokesperson for Conejo Valley Unified, said the district had not been served with a complaint as of April 27. She did not answer questions about Zasadil’s allegations or about the district’s policies.
Based in Thousand Oaks, the district enrolls about 15,700 students at 17 elementary schools, three middle schools, three high schools and a variety of other educational programs, according to its website.
Lawsuit accuses district of silencing advocate
Filed April 22 in Ventura County Superior Court, the lawsuit states that in fall 2024, Zasadil began sharing her concerns about Westlake High School administration’s perceived failure to protect students with district and site leadership as well as her other colleagues.
At the time, Zasadil was providing emotional support to a student who filed a complaint under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, including sexual assault, in schools.
“That student came to her because that student didn’t feel safe with other administrators who weren’t giving her support,” Aarons said. “She felt safe with Ms. Zasadil.”
On March 30, 2025, Zasadil attended an informal town hall meeting that students and parents organized to discuss what they said was a prevalence of sexual assault on the Thousand Oaks school campus. The teacher informed attendees about the flaws in the reporting process and the administration’s inadequate response to misogyny, the lawsuit states.
Aarons would not provide further detail about her comments at the meeting but wrote in the lawsuit that they “angered, frustrated and were not well received by CVUSD.”
Sixteen days later, the district placed Zasadil on paid administrative leave and opened an investigation, according to the lawsuit. Aarons said the district never provided her with any reason for doing so.
He wrote in the lawsuit that his client’s complaints were “a substantial motivating reason for the retaliation.”
“Instead of addressing the issues that she was raising, they conducted this retaliatory and sham investigation,” the attorney said. “They were trying to force her to be quiet and communicate to others that if you speak up, this is what’s going to happen to you.”
The lawsuit asserts that California law prohibits employers from taking retaliatory actions against employees — especially those who are supporting students in the exercise of their rights — and both encourages and requires teachers to speak out to ensure students have access to a safe learning environment.
The district ordered Zasadil not to speak to the substitute teacher for her class, her colleagues or her students and not to enter CVUSD property, according to the lawsuit.
The district also changed her teaching assignments for the 2025-2026 academic year, notably removing her from all three sections of the contemporary world issues honors course that she developed and had taught for eight of her more than 15 years at the district, the lawsuit states.
On Aug. 15, the lawsuit alleges, the district notified Zasadil of a determination of unprofessional conduct and unsatisfactory performance. She was also informed that she would be removed from the leadership committee she served on.
Her administrative leave lasted until around Aug. 20 when she returned to campus for the start of the current school year to teach honors and advanced placement U.S. history and advanced placement European history, Aarons said.
Students demanded advocate’s return to campus
CVUSD’s alleged mishandling of sexual assault cases gained attention April 16, 2025, when six Westlake High School students spoke at a district board meeting about the lack of consequences for perpetrators.
Zasadil also spoke at the meeting, the day after she was placed on leave. She said she was concerned by the “deeply alarming and growing number” of female students who shared their experiences of sexual assault.
“What is most depressing is during this discussion, you often hear this resignation in how they talk about it,” she told the board. “They exhibit this feeling of powerlessness and that our systems don’t really support them.”
District administrators previously said they had received three formal complaints of sexual assault or harassment at Westlake High School during the 2024-2025 academic year, with only one filed under Title IX.
On May 2, hundreds of Westlake High School students participated in a walkout and a few dozen protested outside of campus several hours later.
During the protest, a Westlake High School senior said that she had been sexually assaulted by a male student on campus two years earlier and had recently told a trusted staff member about the incident. She said she filed a Title IX complaint, but the district took no action against the male student, instead displaying a lack of empathy throughout the investigation.
Other students said they participated in the protest to advocate for Zasadil, displaying signs and chanting in support of her. An online petition demanding her return received 475 signatures.
Students at the protest said CVUSD should have followed Zasadil’s example rather than punish her.
“The students saw that administrators were saying on the one hand report to a trusted teacher, but when they did report to a trusted teacher and that teacher was highlighting some of the flaws and failures in the system, then that teacher was put on forced leave,” Aarons said.
The first hearing for Zasadil’s lawsuit is scheduled for Oct. 1.
Makena Huey is an investigative and watchdog reporter for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at makena.huey@vcstar.com. This story was made possible by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation’s Fund to Support Local Journalism.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Westlake High teacher sues district over whistleblower retaliation
Reporting by Makena Huey, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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