School district sued after viral video showed brutal Las Vegas High School student attack

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Two years after a video of an unprovoked attack on a student in a Las Vegas High School classroom went viral, a family has filed a lawsuit against the school district.

Attorneys with Bertoldo Carter Smith & Cullen and Robert Langford, Esq., filed the lawsuit in Clark County District Court on Wednesday, Jan. 31.

The lawsuit lists the Clark County School District, Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara, principals Ronnie Guerzon and Raymond Ortiz, and teacher Brooke Rawlins as defendants.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada said the lawsuit aims to hold the Clark County School District accountable for what they called a brutal attack on a student at Las Vegas High School on Feb. 1, 2022.

“Like many across the country, we were shocked to see the brutal beating that occurred in one of our community’s schools,” attorney James R. Sweetin, Esq., said in a statement. “There are many looming questions about CCSD’s actions here and we look forward to what will likely be extensive litigation to establish that CCSD could have prevented this incident from occurring.”

A video of the incident that circulated on social media at the time showed a 15-year-old student doing school work when another student approached her from behind and began to hit her in the back of the head, knocking her unconscious.

The ACLU said the accused attacker hit the victim 30 times, continuing even after she lost consciousness. The lawsuit said the victim did nothing to provoke the attack.

In the video, a teacher is seen and heard telling the attacker to stop.

“Seeing such a brutal beating of a student while she is simply doing her schoolwork begs the question, ‘How could this have been prevented,’ and we look forward to establishing that CCSD had every ability to preclude this attack from happening but failed to do so,” Las Vegas attorney Robert Langford said. “CCSD’s actions here have destroyed a young girl’s life.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the minor student and her mother, claimed that inadequate training and the policies in place by CCSD caused the victim to be physically abused, which violated her 14th Amendment rights.

“As a result of negligence by school and district leaders, the teen who was attacked sustained serious injury to her body and nervous system that continue to cause her pain, suffering, and disability,” the ACLU wrote.

CCSD and other defendants had a responsibility to the victim’s care, safety, and supervision, the lawsuit stated.

According to the lawsuit, before the beating, the accused attacker approached the victim and made threatening statements toward her while the two were in a math class at Las Vegas High School.

The victim then told the assigned teacher, defendant Rawlins, about the threats made toward her and indicated a concern for her safety, but the lawsuit alleges that Rawlins did nothing to protect the victim before the beating occurred.

The lawsuit claimed that CCSD does not properly train its employees to prevent physical abuse of students.

The lawsuit also claimed the accused attacker had previously been removed from Las Vegas High School for an “extended period of time” for disciplinary problems and the defendants knew the accused attacker had a “history of violence” and making threats toward other students.

As a result of the beating, the victim lost consciousness and sustained “shock and injury to her body and nervous system” which caused her “physical, mental and nervous pain, suffering, disability, and psychological injury.”

The lawsuit claimed that CCSD “had an official policy or widespread or longstanding practice or custom of placing students known to be violent in classrooms with other students,” causing the accused attacker to be placed back into a classroom with the victim and other students, violating Nevada law.

“Nevada law is clear,” Langford said. “Every student has the right to a safe and respectful learning environment.”

State law says “every classroom, hallway, locker room, cafeteria, restroom, gymnasium, playground, athletic field, school bus, parking lot and other areas on the premises of a public school in this state must be maintained as a safe and respectful learning environment, and no form of bullying or cyber-bullying will be tolerated within the system of public education in this State.”

“Bullying” is defined within Nevada Revised Statute 388.122(2)(h) to include “[p]hysically harmful contact with or injury to another person or his or her property,” the lawsuit added.

The lawsuit asks for the victim and her mother to be awarded general and special damages in excess of $15,000, punitive damages, attorney’s fees, costs of court, delay damages, and any other relief the court may award.

“They put a violent student in a classroom with other students and they created a violent situation or dangerous situation as a result of which our client was injured. We would like to see the Clark County School District correct these to provide a safe environment as our children go to school,” Sweetin said.

8 News Now reached out to CCSD on Thursday for comment, however the district has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.

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