Milleman returning to duty

A Jay School Corporation administrator accused of violating students’ Fourth Amendment rights in two lawsuits will return to duty following an independent legal review.

Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley in a press release issued early Wednesday afternoon said the administrator — Brad Milleman (though he is not named in the release) — will return Thursday to his position as assistant principal/dean at Jay County Junior-Senior High School.

Milleman had been on administrative leave since Jan. 19. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed the second lawsuit against him Jan. 18.

Also named in the suits are school nurses Rebecca Hudson and Nancy Snyder.

Jay School Corporation was not named in either suit.

The Commercial Review learned Jan. 18 that a tort claim was filed against the school corporation in connection with the initial lawsuit against Milleman and Hudson. A tort claim is a notification of intent to pursue legal action against a government agency.

The lawsuits, filed a week apart in January, allege that searches of female students were invasive and violated rights against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. Among the allegations is that during searches the girls were asked to pull out the front of their bra away from their body. One of the suits alleges that through that procedure, the girl’s breasts were exposed.

At the request of the school corporation, Fort Wayne law firm Burt Blee conducted a legal review of the incidents in question. The review included interviews with the employees involved and a review of documents related to the incidents, Gulley said Wednesday afternoon.

The details were presented to Jay School Board during its executive session Tuesday. The board heard from the attorneys who conducted the review and were able to ask questions.

Following the review, Gulley says in the release that he has concluded that the students’ Fourth Amendment rights were not violated and that the school employees did not ask students to expose their bras or breasts.

He said Thursday that administrators have received additional training regarding school board policy, administrative guidelines and required documentation of student searches.

Milleman will receive that training upon his return, and the release added that other “relevant staff” may as well.

“As this is a personnel matter subject to ongoing litigation, appropriate information will be communicated to the extent, and at such time, as is consistent with the School Corporation’s confidentiality obligations,” Gulley said in the release. “We are committed to maintaining a safe and secure learning environment, while preserving due process rights of our students and employees.”

Following Milleman’s return, all administrators will return to their regular positions, Gulley said. Assistant principal for curriculum and instruction James Myers, who was dean from 2014 through 2022, had stepped in as dean again on an interim basis and director of e-learning Katie Clark had been reassigned to the junior-senior high building to provide additional support. (In addition to the administrative leave, junior high assistant principal and assistant athletics director Chris Brown left Jay Schools for another job in January, leaving the junior-senior high short-staffed.)

The first lawsuit, filed Jan. 9 in U.S. District Court Northern Division of Indiana (Fort Wayne), alleges that Milleman removed a seventh grader from class and took her to the nurse’s office, where she was ordered to pull up her shirt to expose the waistband of her pants and her midriff and then lift up her sweatshirt and shirt and pull the bottom of her bra away from her body.

The second suit, filed in the same court Jan. 16, details two alleged incidents involving a sophomore girl being asked to pull down her shirt to show her bra straps as well as to pull out the front of her bra and shake it out. The complaint says doing so exposed her breasts to Milleman and Snyder.

"The searches being conducted at Jay County Jr. Sr. High School are completely unreasonable and have caused emotional harm to these young girls," said Ken Falk, legal director at the ACLU of Indiana, in a press release following the filing of the second suit. "Schools are not constitutional dead zones and we are hopeful that the court will hold these school officials accountable.”