A school in Nevada has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of a child in the district who was forced by officials to read pornography – out loud – in class.
The resolution to the case is described by the American Center for Law and Justice as a “significant victory.”
The basis of the lawsuit was that officials in Nevada’s Clark County School District had forced a child to perform a pornographic monologue in a theater class, the legal team explained.
“After significant testimony was revealed in depositions, CCSD settled with us, affirming the rights of parents and students in the face of inappropriate educational content,” the ACLJ announced.
The case was over the forced performance by a 15-year-old student, and a judge had rejected the school’s demand that the case be dismissed.
The next step, then, was discovery, during which even school officials expressed shock over what had happened.
One, for example, said, “The content that [the client] performed, I believe, was inappropriate. … The overall content and language was not something that I felt should have been there.”
And another admitted, “I do remember the first time I read it, being in shock. … What was written was not appropriate to be read and performed in a school setting. … And so it crossed the boundary.”
School officials said even if parental permission had been requested, the reading still “never” would have been approved.
The student’s mother became the plaintiff in the lawsuit, and explained she was forced into the action in order to document that her daughter “had nothing to do with creating this … .”
The district, on social media, had offered a misleading statement, that, “The Clark County School District is investigating the circumstances surrounding a class assignment consisting of a student-generated writing exercise that produced content not conducive to student instruction.”
That resulted in a hate campaign against the student.
The student’s parents responded, “This was an especially difficult time for our daughter. The reason her Dad didn’t come to the school board meeting with me was that he was deployed overseas with the U.S. military for a year, then sent to Ft. Bliss for an additional year & a half, recovering from injuries. As any military family will tell you, life can be very difficult for the kids whose parents are deployed. We try to do everything we can to keep their spirits up, but it’s not always easy. Her teacher knew this, but I guess it didn’t matter to her, and we feel she took advantage of a 15-year-old who just wanted to be a good student and get good grades. Our daughter never wanted to be in the public spotlight for something like this, just like most teens would not want that, so this was all very overwhelming and not an easy journey for her.”
The student now is in her first year of college, writing and singing her own songs.
The ACLJ noted that the Nevada legislature subsequently adopted a law that defines “sexual impropriety” by a teacher to include “sharing pornographic or sexually explicit materials,” which is expected to allow teachers in future situations to be held accountable.
Details of the settlement were not disclosed.
