Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) officials allegedly forced the resignation of an interim superintendent, Dr. Ryan LaDouceur, to exert control over a district mired in a scandal of teacher predators and alleged failures to report.
Last month PUSD replaced LaDouceur with its human resources chief, Tahlya Visintainer, who oversaw the district’s investigation into alleged mishandling of complaints concerning two Centennial High School teachers accused of sexual misconduct with students.
Those teachers, Haley Beck and Angela Burlaka, have since been charged by police — but not due to reporting by school staff. The internal investigation under Visintainer cleared leadership of wrongdoing. The Peoria Police Department has also stated that school leaders didn’t fail their mandatory reporting duties.
LaDouceur claimed in a public statement to PUSD’s governing board during its executive session on Tuesday that certain PUSD officials threatened him in order to secure his resignation.
LaDouceur alleged that PUSD attorney Susan Segal told him in an early Sunday morning phone call last month that he needed to “go away quietly” from the superintendent’s office. LaDouceur said two other, unnamed board members conveyed that message to him as well. LaDouceur said he was never given an explanation for his removal.
“I was given the answer ‘just leave quietly and everything will be okay,’” said LaDouceur. “I was threatened and given 24 hours and told to get it done or there would be issues — on a Sunday morning.”
On Monday, May 18, a day after the alleged phone call between LaDouceur and Segal, officials issued a districtwide email notifying the community of LaDouceur’s resignation. LaDouceur said the email sent under his name was not written by him but instead came from Segal’s law firm, and that he was instructed to pass it along.
“To this date, I have never signed anything saying I would step down, and I’ve never been given answers as to the reasons why,” said LaDouceur.
LaDoucer said he has since endured a false smear campaign carried out in part by fake social media accounts, in which he claimed certain unnamed PUSD officials were involved.
“IP addresses are not that hard to track,” said LaDoucer.
Since resigning, LaDoucer said he has received multiple threats mailed to his home, and that his former colleagues have been contacted with threats as well.
PUSD governing board member Heather Rooks — who was also subjected to her own ouster as governing board president in relation to the ongoing teacher predator scandal — said that LaDoucer was “pushed out” by Visintainer, board president Jeff Tobey, and departing superintendent KC Somers.
“[W]hy are these actions happening in the Peoria district?” asked Rooks.
Dr. Ryan LaDouceur has courage to speak up and share the truth….
He was pushed out by the new interim superintendent Mrs. Visintainer, President Jeff Tobey and Dr. Somers. @PeoriaPoliceAZ @Rachel1Mitchell @AZSenateGOP @AZHouseGOP https://t.co/YMaoEX2UlV
— Heather Rooks The Peoria Mom (@ThePeoriaMom) June 10, 2026
In January, PUSD received a notice of intent to sue from a former Centennial High School student who claimed school leaders ignored problematic conduct by Beck and Burlaka while they “groomed, sexually harrassed, and abused” him. The intent stated that the lawsuit would not proceed if PUSD settled with him for $20 million.
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