CCSD refuses to release records on student gun arrests, denying repeated requests
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Since students went back to class in August, Clark County school police have seized 17 guns.
While 8 News Now has arrest records for the adults taken into custody, the Clark County School District refuses to release any reports on the students arrested for bringing guns.
For more than two months, 8 News Now has requested copies of incident reports dating back to 2021, where children were arrested for having a gun. The purpose was to learn details behind the arrest, including how the students obtained access to firearms.
Instead, 8 News Now’s requests have been repeatedly denied.
An attorney for 8 News Now’s parent company Nexstar Media Group contacted CCSD arguing that the public has a strong and legitimate interest in learning details about incidents involving students bringing a weapon to school.
In the 2022-2023 school year, the Clark County School District Police Department seized 49 guns, 10 were loaded.
8 News Now is not seeking information that will personally identify the students involved.
CCSD Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara has previously expressed outrage over guns on campus.
“Unacceptable numbers for me as an educator and as a father,” Jara said on May 10, 2023.
In refusing to release the arrest reports, CCSD tells 8 News Now confidential and privileged information is not required to be produced under the public records law.
The district adds, “Each of the kids in the reports who were either arrested and/or cited, were referred to juvenile justice court.”
“… because the students are in juvenile court, the records are not subject to disclosure.”
But the 8 News Now attorney disagrees, citing rulings that say Nevada courts could redact confidential information from law enforcement records.
CCSD and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada are locked in a similar battle in district court over access to juvenile records as the ACLU seeks police body camera footage from a February incident at Durango High School.
“The issue isn’t what the ACLU could do, we can do this all day,” Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, said on July 11, 2023. ”We have the resources to do this all day. The general public doesn’t have the resources to be able to do that.”
In its response, CCSD also says education records are protected under FERPA, which stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
But the 8 News Now attorney says we’re seeking disciplinary records, which courts argue are not under FERPA.
The next steps for 8 News Now include asking a district court judge to step in.
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