On an April Friday before Fresno Unified’s safety and security manager was to go on extended medical leave to address returning cancer, Charlene Cardoza’s supervisor called her into his office for discipline.

Cardoza needed to have a cancerous hip removed and undergo extensive rounds of chemotherapy, a regimen she would likely be on for the rest of her life, according to a lawsuit filed against the district last week.

Cardoza’s manager wanted to punish her for a seemingly meaningless dispute about employee-of-the-month awards. The punishment brought up fears she would lose her job and her insurance three days before going into surgery, the lawsuit states.

She has returned to work after exhausting her time off. In contrast, other Fresno Unified employees have been on paid administrative leave for alleged misconduct for more than a year.

On Aug. 22, while Cardoza battles cancer, the district assigned her to the first of what she expects to be many 15-hour days as the football season comes into full swing, GV Wire learned through her attorney.

She is represented by Fresno attorney Howard Sagaser, who is handling numerous lawsuits filed by employees against the district, including from another security manager against Amy Idsvoog, a top administrator.

Cardoza continues to work these hours because she is afraid that if she doesn’t, she will lose her job and her health insurance, Sagaser’s office said.

Fresno Unified did not respond to questions from GV Wire, with a spokesperson saying it would not comment on pending litigation.

Lawsuit Outlines Alleged Conspiracy Against Ailing Security Manager

Cardoza says the retaliation stems from disputes with Idsvoog, the district’s former executive officer of health and safety, and the lawsuit alleges she tried to get Cardoza fired.

Idsvoog, who had little security or safety experience, according to the lawsuit, is married to the district’s chief operations officer, Paul Idsvoog. The Fresno Bee in 2013 reported on the unusual circumstances around their hires. Amy Idsvoog has been in at least three different top positions at the district.

Along with Amy Idsvoog, the lawsuit names David Ray, a fired Morgan Hill police officer whom the district promoted to the position that Cardoza applied for. Ray is the supervisor who issued the disciplinary actions against Cardoza.

A GV Wire email to Ray for comment on the lawsuit’s claims was not returned.

The lawsuit states: “Following her disclosure to David Ray that her cancer had returned and that she needed to have an entire hip removed, Ray plotted to reprimand Cardoza not once, but twice, the Friday before Cardoza left to begin a six-week cancer treatment.

“Thus, while Idsvoog tried to smear Cardoza’s reputation through verbal asides, Ray attempted to injure Cardoza’s reputation by disciplining her in writing for the most ridiculous reasons, including handing out employee of the month awards he had personally signed. Ray manufactured derogatory statements for Cardoza’s personnel file, a common FUSD tactic, in an effort to drive her out of the district.”

Cardoza’s lawsuit claims the district retaliated against her for her complaints about Idsvoog’s lack of experience and favoritism toward male employees.

Cardoza is suing for medical discrimination, discrimination for race and sex, age discrimination, harassment, and violations of whistleblower protections.

Idsvoog Protects Male Employees: Lawsuits

Fresno Unified hired Cardoza as safety manager in summer 2023 after the district made her former coworker at Tachi Palace, Walter Gunn, executive officer of safety and security. Gunn has a separate lawsuit against the district and Amy Idsvoog.

Cardoza led the security team at Tachi Palace casino for many years and previously worked in human resources there.

In early 2024, Cardoza received the first of what would be several complaints from women in the department. A female employee said a male employee used her to demonstrate a combat move to a group, flipping her on her back while she wore a skirt.

Cardoza investigated the complaint and took the matter to Idsvoog after getting conflicting stories about the incident. Idsvoog reportedly told her it was “not a big harassment concern” and told her not to involve human resources, according to the lawsuit.

Another sexual harassment complaint would come from another employee, safety specialist Stephanie Vasquez, stemming from a May argument with that same male employee at a group meeting at a Starbucks.

Sagaser also represents Vasquez in a discrimination lawsuit against the district.

Vasquez filed a complaint with human resources, and an independent investigation was launched after Idsvoog resisted, Vasquez’s lawsuit states. Nothing would come from that investigation, according to Vasquez’s lawsuit. Idsvoog reportedly told her since the employee did not work side-by-side with Vasquez, there was no need to put him on leave.

A few months later, in August 2024, while discussing football security assignments, some male employees began criticizing female employees, according to both lawsuits. Another employee, noted the behavior and Idsvoog brought both Cardoza and Vasquez into a human resources meeting, something Idsvoog would not do for Vasquez’s previous complaint, according to Vasquez’s lawsuit.

“Idsvoog resisted involving HR when a female employee asked Idsvoog to address (a male employee’s) behavior,” the lawsuit states. “However, Idsvoog rushed to include HR in a meeting about gender discrimination when the meeting’s only invitees were Cardoza and Vasquez.”

Refusal to Train Employees Results in Student Injury: Cardoza

Idsvoog’s lack of safety experience also became a point of contention, Cardoza’s lawsuit states.

She warned Idsvoog in early 2024 about employees not providing adequate training.

That lack of training was exposed when a newly hired safety employee at Phoenix Academy tackled a 12-year-old student, severely injuring him. Cardoza said this would not have happened with proper training.

Two months before the incident, Cardoza told Idsvoog that two of the district’s three certified trainers were at risk of losing their certificates because they had not kept up with training protocol. Idsvoog told Cardoza she would not make security staff train if they didn’t want to, the lawsuit alleges. Cardoza said she believes Idsvoog did not enforce training because she favored male employees.

Cardoza filed a human resources complaint after that happened, noting how Idsvoog’s unwillingness to require training possibly resulted in that student’s injury.

Cardoza would not find out until later that the human resources employee she was complaining to, Manjit Atwal, was hired by Idsvoog’s husband, Paul.

“Atwal also failed to inform Cardoza that she continued to receive instruction from Paul Idsvoog and that just three months earlier, at Paul Idsvoog’s request, Atwal had begun focusing her attention on Amy’s departments,” the lawsuit states. Thus, Cardoza didn’t know that her complaints were being made to someone close to both Idsvoogs.

Amy Idsvoog also oversaw the district’s first response department, which coordinates emergency services throughout Fresno Unified. She reportedly required that all emergency calls go through First Response Director Vanessa Ramirez.

Cardoza and Gunn both warned Idsvoog that the “call Vanessa first” policy put students at risk as she was known for not answering calls right away. Cardoza’s lawsuit cites four times in which school principals were left without a timely response.

Fresno Unified reportedly launched an independent investigation into complaints from Cardoza and Gunn. Six months later, the investigation would find no hostile work environment caused, the lawsuit states.

The same investigator for Vasquez’s sexual harassment complaint also conducted the investigation into Amy Idsvoog.

Idsvoog Hired Along With Husband Paul

In 2013, The Fresno Bee reported on the district’s hiring of Paul and Amy Idsvoog. Then Bullard-area trustee Michelle Asadoorian told the newspaper that the district had posted Amy Idsvoog’s position for only eight days. She and Paul were the only candidates interviewed for their jobs, according to the article.

Before becoming the executive officer of health and safety, Idsvoog had been Fresno Unified’s chief communications officer. Her background before working at the district was in hotel sales, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The lawsuit states that when Cardoza came into her health and safety role at the district, Idsvoog did not have adequate knowledge of Federal Emergency Management Agency or Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.

HR Tells Cardoza ‘No Standing’ to File Complaint

The situation came to a head in August 2024 when Cardoza learned that Idsvoog had allegedly confronted Vasquez in her car, trapping her there for 40 minutes. Vasquez, a decades-long employee at the district, had earlier called Cardoza saying she needed to go home sick.

Idsvoog reportedly let herself into Vasquez’s district car and berated her for missing a training because of the sickness. Vasquez afterwards went to the hospital and stayed there three days for a “cardiac incident,” according to Vasquez’s lawsuit.

Cardoza arrived at Figarden Elementary School and saw Vasquez in her car. She requested an ambulance for Vasquez and later filed a complaint about Idsvoog with human resources.

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“I have never seen this type of culture, with the most toxic and entitled individual,” Cardoza’s complaint reads. “It’s all about ego and power with (Idsvoog) and when you cross her, she will create a narrative about you… There are too many of her victims, working here, afraid to speak up. I’m not. This incident alone warranted her being put on administrative leave until it was investigated.”

The next day, Cardoza received a call from the human resources department telling her she had no standing to file a complaint against Idsvoog, according to the lawsuit.

“An HR representative telling an employee that she has no standing to make a complaint about a white supervisor’s assault on a Latina co-worker when she was an eyewitness makes no sense and runs counter to the very purpose of an HR department,” the lawsuit states.

By November 2024, Fresno Unified reassigned Idsvoog to be the district’s executive officer of customer service. In a previous interview, a district spokesperson said the reassignment coincided with the departure of Fresno Unified’s chief academic officer, Natasha Baker.

District Employee Allegedly Told Others to File Complaints Against Cardoza

By spring, Cardoza informed new interim security director Ray she needed to take a leave of absence for surgery. The year before, she told Idsvoog that her cancer had returned. Cardoza had been treated for Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer five years before.

In the months before her April 2025 medical leave — after Idsvoog had been reassigned — Cardoza received four letters of reprimand from Ray. Those included one for not following up on Vasquez’s incident at the Starbucks, something that happened six months before the reprimand.

On the Friday before Cardoza was scheduled to leave for her surgery, Ray gave her all of the previous reprimands in addition to two new ones, bringing the total to six.

The lawsuit claims that it was an attempt by the district to get her to quit.

“FUSD hoped that hand-delivering dual letters of reprimand to Cardoza immediately before she left for treatment would so greatly devastate Cardoza that she would not return,” the lawsuit states.

After returning from her medical leave, three of Cardoza’s coworkers told her that First Response Director Vanessa Ramirez had encouraged them to file complaints against Cardoza in an attempt to get her fired, the lawsuit states.

“Ramirez knew Cardoza had recently returned from cancer treatment and knew the high likelihood that Cardoza was relying on her employment with FUSD for health insurance,” the lawsuit states. “Still, Ramirez attempted to engineer complaints against Cardoza while admitting to others that she was trying to get Cardoza fired.”

While Cardoza, 50, now works full time to retain her medical insurance, some district employees have been on paid administrative leave for extended periods of time.

Court documents indicate one employee — a cousin of superintendent Misty Her — has been on leave since November 2024.

The district told GV Wire it would not supply the number of employees on paid administrative leave and how long they’ve been on leave before Sept. 2.

District Passes Over Cardoza for Police Officer Fired for Improper Arrests, Lying

The Cardoza incident isn’t the first accusation of retaliation mounted against David Ray.

After Idsvoog’s departure and Gunn’s — who quit in September — Cardoza sought the interim position, according to the lawsuit. She would have been the senior employee. That position instead went to Ray, who was brought to the district years before by former superintendent Michael Hanson.

Before joining the district, Ray had been a police officer in Morgan Hill.

The department fired Ray in 2011 for arresting two women for public intoxication only feet from their home, according to a notice to terminate from Morgan Hill Police Department.

The notice said Ray had no cause to make the arrest.

The women took photos of themselves beside the car, which still had the police dog inside with the windows down and the car running.

After detaining the women, Ray deleted photos from their phones — photos which the report considered evidence to his complaint.

He also falsely claimed his police corporal told him to delete the photos.

“You failed to act in a civil, impartial, respectful or professional manner toward Ms. Serrano and Ms. Partida. You arrested the women without probable cause and were more concerned about getting back at Ms. Serrano and Ms. Partida for being around your unsecured vehicle rather than making an honest assessment of whether or not the elements were met for a public intoxication arrest,” the report stated.

A Santa Clara County judge upheld Ray’s termination, according to the Gilroy Dispatch.