Sex-abuse ruling makes sense to school district officials

Clark County School District officials said a Monday ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court will protect them from lawsuits when teachers sexually harass or abuse students.

The nation's highest court ruled that school districts can't be held responsible for a teacher's behavior if administrators did not know about it.

"The decision makes common sense," Clark County Schools spokesman Ray Willis said. "In light of the potential for the district having to cough up huge amounts of taxpayer dollars to settle future claims for matters which we know nothing about, it seems like a reasonable ruling."

School district lawyer Bill Hoffman said the district in the past had been vulnerable to charges that administrators "just should have known."

"It clarifies the standard by which we impose liability," Hoffman said. "It makes it very clear the district has to have actual notice of misconduct by the teacher."

Hoffman said the ruling does not let unaware administrators off the hook. He said the district's harassment policy, which was passed this year and generally bans all types of harassment, makes administrators responsible for swiftly punishing harassers, not turning a blind eye.

"Now it's absolutely clear to supervisors that if they know about harassment, they absolutely need to take action," Hoffman said.

The Supreme Court ruling had some resonance in Nevada, where several teachers have faced sex charges.

The Nye County School District since 1994 has dealt with four teachers alleged to have had sexual relations with students in Pahrump, a small town roughly 60 miles west of Las Vegas.

Most notably, Brian Lepley, 33, a former Pahrump teacher who is HIV positive, was sentenced to life in prison last month for the sexual assault of a 16-year-old boy.

Pahrump officials were unavailable for comment on the court ruling Monday.

At Las Vegas' Bishop Gorman High School, officials also said they welcomed the ruling. Last year, Gorman teacher Jack Patton was charged with 13 counts of sexual misconduct involving two female students.

"It would be nice to think that we couldn't be sued unless the school had culpability," Las Vegas Diocese schools Superintendent Ellen Ayoub said.

Patton in March pleaded guilty under a law that went into effect in October making it a felony to have sexual relations with a student. State legislators passed the law largely in response to the Pahrump incidents.

Clark County's Hoffman said the district did not have any cases pending in which a teacher was implicated in sexual misconduct.

But school officials winced last October when a Reno teacher resigned amid charges she had sex with two teens when she taught in Las Vegas. Teacher Cristi Armstrong resigned in 1996 from Eldorado High School as Clark County officials were investigating the charges.

"We could have defensed that," Hoffman said, declining to comment further.

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