Alyssa Plaza regained her teaching credential. The state record shows a censure, too.

Start with the official record: Arizona’s State Board of Education lists Alyssa Plaza’s case as a negotiated settlement ending in a letter of censure with conditions. AZFamily separately reported that the state restored her teaching credentials.

In April 2025, Yuma Union High School District’s board voted 4-0 to terminate Plaza, a physical education teacher and cheer coach at Somerton High School, KAWC reported. The vote followed Superintendent Tim Brienza’s recommendation.

At the time, Plaza told KAWC she had made an accommodation for a cheerleader who felt unsafe using the usual changing area, and that the nurse’s room was not always available. The student is not named here. The student’s personal circumstances are not needed to understand the district’s employment decision or the state’s later action.

KAWC reported that YUHSD confirmed Plaza’s termination but said district officials could not comment further on personnel matters. The district also told KAWC that teacher credential discipline is decided by the state, not the district.

The Arizona State Board’s public discipline search lists Plaza’s case as C-2025-010107, a Negotiated Settlement Agreement dated Aug. 24, 2026. Its summary reads “Letter of Censure with Conditions.” The Board’s Aug. 24 meeting minutes list Plaza among the negotiated settlement agreements approved in an 8-0 vote. The discipline search gives the official outcome; it does not reproduce the settlement’s narrative terms.

AZFamily reported, citing state documents it reviewed, that investigators described YUHSD’s original allegations as “incomplete and inaccurate.” The station also reported that Plaza’s censure and required online professional standards course concerned messages she sent to her team after administrators had told her not to contact students during the investigation, rather than the locker-room incident itself. Those details come from AZFamily’s account of the settlement documents, not the short public database summary.

So both parts belong in the same story: AZFamily reported that Plaza regained her credentials and plans to teach again, while the state’s own public database still records a censure with conditions. A negotiated settlement can resolve a case without erasing every part of its discipline.

AZFamily reported on Aug. 28 that YUHSD had not responded to its questions about the state’s findings or the settlement. KAWC’s 2025 report said the district had declined to comment on the personnel matter at that time. We have not treated either account as a current district response.