Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Complaint alleges School District ignored bullying at junior high school

Two middle school students file harassment, discrimination complaints

KSNV reports that Clark County School administrators are looking into claims from two students at Greenspun Middle School about being victims of harassment and discrimination, July 18.

The Clark County School District failed to adequately protect two Greenspun Junior High School students from bullying this past school year, according to sexual discrimination complaints lodged Wednesday against the district.

The sixth-graders were discriminated against and harassed by other students based on the boys’ perceived sexual orientation, according to the two complaints jointly filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the boys’ parents with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission.

The bullying – which allegedly took place between August 2011 and February 2012 – started with verbal taunts, but quickly escalated to physical assaults, said Katrina Rogers, a staff attorney with the local ACLU representing the two boys.

Among other physical assaults, Rogers said students stabbed one of the boys in the genitals with a pencil and beat another on his legs with the slider of a trombone. The bullying, Rogers said, took place on school premises.

Repeated attempts by the boys’ parents to address the bullying were met with inaction on the part of the School District, Rogers said. School officials met with the parents once and pleas for help were ignored, she said.

One of the boys' mothers even lobbied the School Board in February after she was barred from working as a volunteer at the school, Rogers said. The School District’s alleged lack of response prompted the parents to seek counsel and help from the ACLU.

The boys eventually transferred from the School District to a private Henderson school, Rogers added.

“The real heart of the matter here is the lack of response by the district,” Rogers said. “They were well aware of what was going on.”

The complaints contend the School District violated internal policies and state law that protect students from being discriminated against and harassed based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, Rogers said.

The Equal Rights Commission has the authority to require that the School District comply with state laws and revise policies to better address bullying. The ACLU has lobbied against anti-bullying legislation in the past, arguing the laws infringe upon First Amendment free-speech rights, Rogers said.

ACLU requested in the complaints that the School District receive equal rights training from the commission and that Greenspun Junior High School conduct regular internal and public meetings about bullying, harassment and discrimination.

This complaint is the first lodged against the Clark County School District by the ACLU in at least three years.

A few years ago, the ACLU filed complaints against the Washoe County School District on behalf of an Egyptian-American student who was harassed for wearing a Muslim headdress. The Reno-based school district settled with the student and her advocate to the tune of $400,000. The Equal Rights Commission found no fault on either party.

Neither the parents nor the ACLU are seeking any financial compensation from the Clark County School District at this time, although that could change if the matter heads to court, Rogers said.

The School District could not comment on the specifics of Wednesday’s complaint, as it was not served the formal documents as of early Wednesday afternoon.

“Student safety is the top priority of the district,” said district spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson in a prepared statement. “We will review this issue and work with the students, parents and administrators to investigate what happened on the campus that led to the lawsuit.”

The School District has focused on bullying this past school year, Fulkerson said. The district’s office of equity and diversity conducted a conference for employees about creating safe spaces in schools and district-wide training sessions to identify and address bullying in schools.

Specific schools have adopted unique ways to address bullying, including special school assemblies to raise awareness about the issue. This past school year, Green Valley High School’s music department composed and performed a song on the damaging effects of bullying at several schools.

The local R&R Partners Foundation also launched Flip The Script, a state-wide anti-bullying campaign aimed at increasing awareness of bullying in Nevada schools. The group staged panel discussions, school assemblies and a screening of “Bully,” a Lee Hirsch documentary that captured the struggles of families and students victimized by bullying.

These efforts were in response to several high-profile bullying cases involving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths, including the suicide of Tyler Clementi – a Rutgers University student who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate used a webcam to view Clementi’s encounter with another man in his dorm room.

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