Clark County School District
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Updated – June 21, 2024
A student in the Clark County School District (CCSD) committed suicide after being bullied. When the online and physical threats continued, the victim was suspended by school administrators.
According to KSNV News 3, “A Las Vegas family is grieving after their 12-year-old daughter … died by suicide after they say she was bullied at Keller Middle School. [The victim’s p]arents say it’s an unimaginable experience their family is going through, and it could have been prevented with awareness.”
KSNV continued, “[Her] parents say she was bullied the entire school year at Keller Middle School and they even requested an emergency school transfer that [CCSD] denied. [Her dad] says the school’s response to the bullying was suspending both parties after an incident report.”
A live report from 8 News Now can be viewed below. Content warning: detailed discussion of child suicide.
CCSD has yet to release a public statement regarding the incident or offer support for grieving students. Allegedly, the district also has not paid any respects to the victim’s family.
Inside Edition said, “After [the student’s] death, the school sent an email to all parents, including [her parents], notifying them that a student had died. A copy of the email obtained by Inside Edition Digital shows [the victim] was not mentioned by name.”
The source also said, “To this day, [the victim’s] parents say no one from the school has contacted them. Days after [she] died, [her mom] says she began receiving emails reminding her to register her [daughter] for the upcoming school year.”
Since the victim was in a private chat, the parents claimed they did not know about the online attacks against their daughter. Eventually, other parents shared screenshots of the hateful chat room comments.
Sources did not disclose whether the student’s parents will pursue legal action against CCSD. A GoFundMe page is available to help cover family expenses.
In an unrelated story, a teacher at Shenker Academy, which is part of CCSD, was arrested and charged with child neglect and abuse.
Fox 5 KVVU-TV reported, “Eryka Westover, 33, was arrested on May 17 [2024] and booked into the Clark County Detention Center after a report was filed alleging her abuse of a student at the learning institute. Assistants at the school informed one of the parents about the child being body-slammed, and added that the suspect ‘had been slapping, hitting, and pinching children.’”
Shenker Academy’s statement, published by ABC 3 News, says, in part:
“Dear Shenker Academy Community: Today, Shenker Academy’s leadership was made aware of the recent arrest of a former Shenker Academy staff member … We take these allegations very seriously. The teacher accused was placed on administrative leave immediately after the Board was notified of these accusations and her employment has been terminated.”
The School Board Watchlist will continue monitoring issues in the Clark County School District. Please send tips, updates, and information to [email protected].
Updated – March 4, 2024
Attorneys with the Thomas More Society helped a CCSD Students for Life club come to a settlement with the district to protect their right to speak on pro-life matters within the district’s schools.
Joan Mannix, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President & Managing Counsel, commented upon the settlement:
“This public, taxpayer funded school district and high school were actively violating the Equal Access Act, the Nevada Constitution, and the United States Constitution, apparently due to ongoing bias against the club’s pro-life beliefs and actions.”
“We are pleased that the negotiations for this settlement have resulted in revisions to school’s handbook and a memorandum to district administrators reminding them that students are not exempt from the First Amendment.”
Addressing the administration’s treatment of Students for Life, Mannix stated:
“It’s regrettable that administrators of the fifth largest school district in the country needed this reminder. In fact, their own regulations prohibit discriminating against student clubs on the basis of religious, political, philosophical, or other speech content.’”
Two students involved in Students for Life — who are now in college — were co-plaintiffs in the suit. The Thomas Moore Society states:
“After nearly three years of the school administrators discriminating against their pro-life speech, [the students] decided to file a lawsuit against the school, the district, and administrators on behalf of the club and themselves.”
The Thomas More Society claimed, “School administrators stifled the group’s protected speech by”:
- “Refusing to allow the Students for Life Club to distribute flyers because they mentioned a pregnancy resource clinic, claiming that flyers could not mention outside groups, even though other favored student groups often directed students to outside groups;
- “Rejecting of Students for Life Club requests to post images in the East Tech Times student newsletter, despite other student groups including images;
- “And rejecting a Students for Life Club meeting announcement, which including [sic] pictures of students declaring ‘I reject abortion,’ because they were ‘too controversial’—despite allowing faculty to hang pro-abortion posters in their classrooms.”
Fox 5 reports, “The school district didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.”
According to Fox News, in 2022, “the Students for Life group had accused East Career and Technical Academy of denying their fliers with images in the school newspaper, despite other groups being allowed to include pictures in their fliers.
Fox News also reports on the district’s previous treatment of the group according to the lawsuit:
”The suit also claimed the ECTA assistant principal had ‘refused’ to allow students to post fliers referring to an adoption agency and pregnancy resource clinic during the 2019-2020 school year.”
Updated – January 10, 2024
Clark County prosecutors are in the process of indicting a former CCSD bus driver accused of attacking a ten-year-old non-verbal autistic student, according to Las Vegas KLAS. William Becker, the student’s father, says his son has suffered since the attack and that he has not been in a classroom for over a year.
“It’s just real hard for him. He just doesn’t know what to do with himself anymore.”
The attack is alleged to have occurred in November of 2022. The driver, a woman named Dorys Tovar, “struck Brown in the face, body, limbs, torso, and extremities,” according to court documents on the case. Tovar was arrested a month following the attack on one count of child abuse, Las Vegas KLAS reports.
The Las Vegas Justice Court dismissed the case; however, prosecutors of the case aim to get Tovar indicted by way of a Grand Jury.
KLAS states that “Brown’s parents hope that a federal lawsuit they filed against the Clark County School District not only helps Brown but brings changes.”
Concerning the employment status of Tovar, in December 2022 she was “placed on unpaid leave per the terms of the negotiated agreement with the bargaining unit since the investigation began” according to 8 News Now.
Due to district policy, CCSD has not commented upon the ongoing litigation.
Updated October 6, 2023
Turning Point USA Faith contributor Pastor John Amanchukwu’s microphone was cut during his comments at the Clark County School District board meeting on Thursday, September 28, 2023.
Listen to Pastor Amanchukwu’s comments below or view the Clark County Moms For Liberty Instagram page.
Content warning: explicit language.
Pastor Amanchukwu spoke regarding district policy 5138 which states:
“Clark County School District is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment for all students, including those with diverse gender identities or expressions…State law protects students from discrimination based on gender identities or expressions.”
Under “Definitions,” the policy describes gender identity as “a student’s understanding, outlook, feelings, and sense of being masculine, feminine, both or neither, regardless of the student’s sex assigned at birth.”
Pastor Amanchukwu was unable to finish his list. As he referenced “anal sex, blow jobs, and orgasms,” Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales stopped his time, cut his mic and asked him “not to use profanity.”
When Pastor Amanchukwu attempted to read from “Flamer”—a book about one boy’s homosexual journey that can be found in Clark County School District libraries—Garcia Morales restarted his time but said, “No, we’re not going to do this…” She also said his “language was inappropriate.” In the video, parents can be heard yelling, “It’s in the schools!” and “It’s inappropriate for our kids!”
Pastor Amanchukwu further stated to Garcia Morales:
“You don’t want to hear the truth. You want to cover up the truth…You want to silence me, you want to shut me up because you don’t want to hear the other side. We’ve heard from the perverts. We’ve heard from the wicked people. We’ve heard from the sexual deviants and predators. Can we now hear from people with common sense?”
Community members started shouting “Remove her!” after Board Member Linda Cavazos held up an LGBTQ sign:
Photo sourced from Turning Point Faith.
Garcia Morales later had Pastor Amanchukwu and several community members escorted out by security.
Too “inappropriate” to be read at a school board meeting but just fine for your kids…@REVWUTRUTH @tpusafaith pic.twitter.com/BvOD1ACKkR
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) October 2, 2023
According to the Daily Caller, Clark County School District has a track record of cutting the microphone and public comment time when community members confront the district’s use of sexually explicit content in the classroom.
Updated – May 16, 2022
Established in 1956, Clark County School District (CCSD) is the 5th largest district in the nation, with over 320,000 students enrolled, and has over 40,000 employees. The district educates 75 percent of the students in Nevada and has a total of 357 schools.
In a recent CCSD board meeting, a concerned mom shared a graphic assignment that was given to her 15-year-old. While the mother was reading the content, her mic was cut off more than once by the school board.
According to mrctv.org, The mother quoted from the assignment “’I don’t love you. It’s not you, it’s just, I don’t like your d*** – or any d*** in that case. I cheated, Joe…” The mom’s microphone was cut off and shortly after, the chairwoman intervened, “Forgive me, we’re not using profanity.” The mother asked, “If you don’t want me to read it to you, what was it like for my 15-year-old daughter to have to memorize pornographic material?” This was before her microphone was cut off again.
Watch the short clip below:
A mom in @ClarkCountySch reads from a graphic assignment her daughter was required to do. Her mic then gets cut off because it’s inappropriate for a public discussion.
Adults can’t handle hearing this content yet they readily give it to kids in school. How does it make sense? pic.twitter.com/GFP1bGhNlg
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 17, 2022
Updated – October 4, 2021
On September 3, 2021, the Clark County School District Board of Trustees voted 5-1 in favor of mandating vaccines for all employees. The meeting lasted several hours, with an overwhelming majority of parents speaking out against mandating vaccines. The meeting finally adjourned at nearly 1:00am. Many of the teachers in the district have threatened to leave if such a mandate was implemented. With a dire shortage of substitute teachers already effecting not just Clark County, but the nation as a whole, this mandate made the demand for teachers much worse.
A substitute teacher at Reedom Elementary School was caught having taped a mask to a 9 year old boys mouth. According to the New York Post, the sticky situation reportedly began after the fourth-grader neglected to don his face cover after getting up to grab a drink of water.
However, instead of simply telling him to put it back on, the female teacher “pulled him up in front of the classroom” and “taped the mask across the top of his face.” The educator also reportedly slapped a second layer of adhesive to the top of the boy’s forehead. School officials caught wind to the cruel and unusual punishment after the boy went to the office to retrieve some forgotten homework that his dad dropped off, Fox News reported. The school boss went to the classroom to investigate, and reportedly saw another boy with tape across their face. Clark County School District released the following statement: “The district is aware of the isolated incident and is dealing with the employee through the proper channels. The principal proactively notified the family of the investigation.”
Clark County School District will receive $770 million in federal aid and they are asking the community to be involved in how that money will be spent. The group that will be coordinating efforts with the community to properly allocate the funds is: Focus on the Future for Kids: Community Input Initiative. Although the district hasn’t implemented mandatory vaccines yet, some of the school board members have posted on their personal social media accounts with strong views on certain sensitive social topics. Evelyn Garcia Morales is one in particular who has tweeted in support of anti-racism workshops.
