Lawsuit alleges CCSD, teacher’s union protect employees accused of sexual misconduct
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A lawsuit accuses the Clark County School District and the teacher’s union of protecting educators accused of sexual assault.
It was filed at Clark County District Court on Wednesday and outlines a pattern of CCSD employees getting moved to different schools following an accusation.
“Under the collective bargaining agreement, a teacher who does this, if they’re not convicted of a crime, they can be transferred to a new school. There’s going to be no documents or records about the abuse that occurred,” Dennis Prince of the Prince Law Group said.
Prince filed the lawsuit on behalf of his client who was assaulted by Darryl Lancaster.
A former teacher at Jo Mackey Magnet Elementary School, Lancaster was arrested in May of last year for sexual misconduct. In a criminal complaint, North Las Vegas police claim he groomed his victim.
According to a lawsuit, Lancaster was moved to eight different schools over a 20-year span.
Prince believes there may be other victims.
“The district needs to be extraordinarily diligent as well as at the school level of making sure that these abusers are removed. But under the collective bargaining agreement with the union, it’s almost impossible to remove them,” Prince said.
In court filings, Prince cites portions of the 2021/2023 teacher contract where it states allegations of misconduct don’t have to be in a teacher’s record.
If an educator is convicted of a crime, they can have it removed from their personnel file after three years, according to the lawsuit.
Prince said he believes the same language exists in the new teacher contract.
“The new school administration, including the principal of the new school, would have no knowledge of what happened,” Prince said.
Prince points to a pattern of bad teacher behavior at CCSD. From 2005-2015 more than 30 district employees were arrested on sexual misconduct allegations, according to the lawsuit.
Court records show Lancaster was arrested in January of 2023 for misconduct at Jo Mackey.
Lancaster pleaded no contest on July 31 in a plea agreement, avoiding jail time.
“Clearly the school administration and principal of that school knew and was aware of this,” Prince said.
Prince added that Lancaster was allowed to remain in the classroom and the abuse of his client continued to go unchecked.
According to court records, Lancaster pleaded guilty on Nov. 27 to attempted lewdness with a child and distribution of visual representation depicting sexual misconduct. The former teacher was originally charged with multiple counts of lewdness with a child, producing child porn, and luring a minor.
CCSD declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending ligation. The teacher’s union, CCEA, hasn’t responded to a request for a statement.
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