Former Santiago Canyon College President Jeannie Kim has sued the Rancho Santiago Community College District, alleging whistleblower retaliation after she raised concerns about suspected fraudulent student enrollments at its two colleges.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, Sept. 16, in Orange County Superior Court, alleges Kim became known for combating suspected enrollment fraud at Santiago Canyon and Santa Ana colleges before she faced escalating scrutiny and adverse treatment. She received a vote of no confidence from the group representing Santiago Canyon College faculty members in November 2025.
In May 2026, after returning from medical leave, the district informed Kim that the Board of Trustees had decided to remove her as president, and she was later placed on paid administrative leave, according to the lawsuit.
Santiago Canyon College Vice Chancellor Enrique Perez is currently serving as the college’s acting president.
Kim, who alleges whistleblower retaliation, gender and racial discrimination, discrimination based on her medical leave and disability, and a hostile work environment, is seeking economic and noneconomic damages, compensation for lost wages and benefits, and attorney fees and legal costs. Additionally, she is seeking reinstatement to her position.
Fraudulent enrollments
Beginning in 2023, the suit alleges, Kim raised concerns through district channels about fraudulent student enrollments at the district’s two colleges — Santiago Canyon College in Orange and Santa Ana College — after seeing what she believed was a growing problem with people using automated “bots” or other fraudulent methods to enroll or reenroll in classes. She warned administrators that the district could be collecting state apportionment funds associated with fraudulent enrollments, according to the lawsuit.
The district serves 571,000 residents in the communities of Anaheim Hills, Orange, Santa Ana, Villa Park and portions of Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Tustin. Along with its two community colleges, the district also operates eight other facilities, including the Orange County Regional Fire Training Center and the Orange County Sheriff’s Regional Training Academy.
Kim alleges she discussed her concerns with Chancellor Marvin Martinez and Vice Chancellor of Educational Services Enrique Perez, and stressed how the two colleges were handling suspected fraudulent enrollments differently.
At Santiago Canyon, Kim said, the college took steps to combat the problem, including implementing artificial intelligence fraud-detection technology in the fall of 2024. According to the lawsuit, the technology substantially reduced fraudulent enrollments but also contributed to a 14% decline in reported credit enrollment.
Santa Ana College, however, continued to allow enrollments or reenrollments that Kim suspected were fraudulent, even as Santiago Canyon College was working to remove them, according to the lawsuit.
In January 2025, the lawsuit alleges, Kim raised concerns with Martinez about how declining enrollment at Santiago Canyon and the loss of state apportionment funding could affect the district’s budget. She also questioned how the college could absorb the costs of union contracts Martinez was negotiating, including a proposed 14% increase, given its declining enrollment.
Kim claims those concerns, along with her warnings about enrollment fraud and its financial impact, preceded increasing scrutiny and adverse treatment that she alleges amounted to retaliation.
“Kim made efforts to clean up and remove the fraudulent or false enrollment numbers for (Santiago Canyon College), which led to reduced funds, while the Chancellor was negotiating pay raises with the unions with full knowledge of the shortfall issue he was creating by his actions,” said Kim’s attorney, Daniel Moussatche of the Riverside law firm Wagner Zemming Christensen, in a statement.
Dispute intensifies
The dispute intensified in May 2025, when Kim, according to the lawsuit, warned Perez and Assistant Vice Chancellor Jesse Gonzalez in writing that continuing to enroll or reenroll “known fraudulent actors” could mean the district was knowingly committing fraud by accepting state funding tied to those enrollments.
Kim claims Perez described the accusations as “serious” and that legal counsel would need to become involved if she was making a whistleblower complaint. Kim characterized the response as “haranguing” and threatening, according to the lawsuit.
After warning administrators of the potential repercussions from failing to properly address fraudulent enrollments, Kim claims district officials increasingly scrutinized her work, undermined her authority and subjected her to hostility.
Meanwhile, the issue of fraudulent enrollments drew scrutiny from the state auditor, and Santiago Canyon College was one of three colleges targeted by the state for an audit, according to the lawsuit.
Auditors began visiting the campus in December 2025 and interviewed Kim about the college’s efforts to identify fraudulent students. The audit’s findings remain pending, Moussatche said.
Medical leave
Kim, a breast cancer survivor, went on leave for “personal medical reasons” from June 9 to 24, 2025. Martinez, the district chancellor, wanted to discipline her over a doctor’s note that included previously approved vacation days. Kim obtained a revised note as requested, according to the lawsuit.
Several months later, Kim received the no-confidence vote from the Santiago Canyon College Academic Senate, which cited 120 items as evidence against her, according to the lawsuit.
Kim went on medical leave again in March after suffering a panic attack, and returned to work in May. While she was on leave, Kim claims district officials criticized her publicly, according to the lawsuit.
Upon her return to work, Kim was told that the Board of Trustees had decided to remove her as president, according to the lawsuit. Later that month, Kim was placed on administrative leave.
“Plaintiff’s district email was immediately disabled, her office access and equipment were removed, and staff were told she was not permitted on campus,” according to the lawsuit.
Rancho Santiago Community College District spokesman Eugene Fields acknowledged in an email Friday that the district and Santa Ana College have faced fraudulent enrollment attempts, and that the district has established processes for reviewing and verifying enrollment reporting.
“RSCCD and Santa Ana College dispute the allegation that they knowingly claimed fraudulent enrollments or received funding based on knowingly false enrollment information,” said Fields, declining further comment because of the pending litigation.
The lawsuit comes as the district faces other recent controversies involving its leadership.
Earlier this month, Chancellor Martinez was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into allegations against him that were not disclosed. Vice Chancellor Iris Ingram was named acting chancellor.
Martinez already had been the subject of possible discipline by the board earlier this year. In April, the district’s Board of Trustees formed an ad hoc committee to evaluate his performance.