Another lawsuit has been filed against Douglas County School District relating to a records request — except this time, instead of being in hot water for withholding information from the public, confidential personal information of DCSD staff and their family members was provided to a man who had been allegedly harassing special education teachers and staff members for some time.
The lawsuit was filed against both the district and defendant Anthony Gracza earlier this month, stemming from a January 2026 incident in which Gracza filed a records request requesting employment records of eleven DCSD employees.
According to the complaint, he sought employment information such as positions titles, qualifications, compensation, applications and resumes, salaries and the like.
However, the complaint continues that “nothing in the request required — or even permitted — production of unredacted social security numbers, private home-contact information, signatures, or unrelated personnel-file material.”
According to the complaint, Gracza was a family member “involved in an ongoing and contentious dispute with DCSD personnel concerning his child’s educational services.” Because of this, plaintiffs say the district should have known that releasing unreviewed personnel folders to a requester involved in an active dispute with employees “created foreseeable privacy, identity theft, harassment, safety, and emotional-distress risks.”
Following the request, Superintendent Frankie Alvarado allegedly physically handed over the personnel files of the teachers and administrators to Gracza during a parent complaint meeting.
Unbeknownst to the teachers and administrators whose files were provided to Gracza, an example some of the personal information included:
- Names
- Dates of birth
- Full Social Security numbers
- Current and previously known addresses
- Names and information of family members
- Criminal histories
- Debit or credit card information
- Personal phone numbers and email addresses
- License numbers
- Signatures
- Payroll and PERS information and,
- Professional references, transcripts, credential records, applications, among others
However, the complaint states that at the time of the filing, individual plaintiffs still do not know the full extent of what pieces of their private information were disclosed, as DCSD did not keep a record of what had been provided.
None of the records had gone through a process of redaction, and remained out of DCSD’s custody until May 2026, according to the filing.
During an early May 2026 meeting with staff, Gracza appeared “carrying a large stack of folders, which he placed on the table and rearranged during the meeting.” One of the staff members in attendance recognized them as personnel-files and perceived the display as “intimidating,” according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Director of Human Resources Jeannie Dwyer was also present in the meeting, and that given her “involvement in the records request and preparation of the personnel folders, plaintiffs believe Dwyer knew or should have known what the folders were and that Gracza continued to possess them; yet, no affected employee was warned. DCSD also did not immediately retrieve the records.”
According to the complaint, affected employees did not learn about the breach from DCSD.
Instead, according to the husband of one of the plaintiffs who provided the complaint to Carson Now, it was only after Gracza had been allegedly “bragging” to the owner of a local gas station how he’d been given the records he “knew DCSD shouldn’t have given him” the information made its way to the affected staff members through the Douglas County grapevine.
On May 11, some of the named plaintiffs brought the issue to DCSD administration. The complaint states that internal communications showed the district personnel involved in tracking down what information had been released had significant difficulties determining what they had provided Gracza.
On May 14, a meeting between DCSD and some of the affected employees / individuals whose information had been leaked was convened.
During that meeting, district representatives told the gathered employees that “attorney guidance should have been followed before release” and that “an insurance claim had been filed concerning an ‘inappropriate disclosure of information,’” according to the complaint.
The district representatives said they Gracza had “been contacted and asked to stop sharing information.”
It wasn’t until June 16, 2026 that the district formally “acknowledged it had inadvertently made an overly broad disclosure” in responding to Gracza’s request. For some of those affected, however, they still did not know their information had been involved until a copy of the June 16 notice was sent a month later on July 17.
The district offered those affected between 1 and 3 years of credit monitoring. Some of the plaintiffs, however, have still never received the enrollment information to start their credit monitoring, according to the complaint.
Some plaintiffs experienced fraudulent activity on their accounts, which they believe was due to this breach of information. These allegedly included a $1,000 online laptop purchase to be picked up at the local Carson Valley Best Buy using the personal information and credit card number of a staff member, along with dozens of attempted fraudulent transactions that were blocked by their bank that continued for months.
During a records request undertaken by plaintiffs in preparation for this lawsuit, it was determined through internal communications of HR Director Dwyer that which portions of staff records had been identified as public and were subject to disclosure.
HR prepared folders for the request, and a staff member placed the files on Dwyer’s desk. However, according to the complaint, Dwyer had not completed the final review and redaction of the files prior to Superintendent Alvarado either obtaining or being given the folders.
The complaint states plaintiffs have suffered from emotional distress such as increased anxiety, depression, stress and stress-related physical manifestations since the breach occurred. One employee said that he was retaliated against for “pressing the district for answers” resulting in a write-up that was later dismissed. Those individuals whose full Social Security and/or financial information was leaked say they have had ongoing fraudulent activity attempts requiring them to spend significant time and energy investigating, preventing or responding to these attempts.
Several of the teachers also withdrew from extended school work, resulting in a loss of compensation, as a result of this breach, according to the complaint.
Plaintiffs are requesting first and foremost: an accounting of all the information that had been provided, and secondly: compensation for damages and attorneys fees.
This is a developing story. We reached out to DCSD for comment and will update if they respond.
You can read the full complaint below:
