EDITORIAL: Passing the buck, harming the kids

School districts and states have a professional, moral and legal obligation to protect children from sexual predators inside education systems. That obligation does not end at the borders of any jurisdiction — it is a sacred duty to all students everywhere.

The Clark County School District has failed that trust again. And, like countless other school systems, Clark County is poised to fail additional unsuspecting students and families here and elsewhere.

Hayden Elementary School music teacher Jeremiah Mazo was arrested last month. As reported by the Review-Journal’s Neal Morton, an 8-year-old girl told investigators Mazo had molested her 10 times since the start of the current school year.

What makes the accusation far more shocking, however, is the fact that Mazo faced similar charges, involving a student of similar age, in 2008. The school district knew about the allegations — in fact, administrators reported Mazo to the police — but took no serious action against Mazo once a judge dismissed and sealed the case.

The standard for a criminal conviction — beyond a reasonable doubt — does not apply to school district administrators in assigning teachers. If Mazo’s bosses believed he posed even the slightest threat to students, they had a mandate to keep him away from kids. They could have assigned him to a job that did not put him in contact with children, built their own case against him and eventually forced him out.

Instead, he was returned to the classroom. He told investigators last month he couldn’t resist the temptation to touch the girl, according to a North Las Vegas police report.

And how is the school district responding to the latest charges against Mazo? By moving to terminate him for not showing up to work when he was in jail. A good call, to be sure, but one that might not protect other students from Mazo if he somehow avoids conviction again and applies to work as a teacher in another school district or state. That prospective employer will find out Mazo was fired over his attendance, not molestation allegations.

“That’s not on me,” Clark County Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky told Mr. Morton. “I can’t control what other districts do, but I have to protect our children.”

That’s exactly what other education leaders elsewhere say in “passing the trash” — getting rid of sexual predators but enabling them to work elsewhere, where they gain access to new potential victims. Mr. Skorkowsky should have said, “I have to protect all children,” and vowed to, at a minimum, attach a memo to Mazo’s personnel file that urged any prospective future employer to Google him — as if they should need a reminder to conduct a free name search on the Internet.

The state has its own failures to answer for. Mr. Morton reported Sunday that the Department of Education for years ignored a state law, passed in 2007, that was supposed to create a notification system to track the criminal cases of school personnel. In many cases, school districts completely failed to report teacher arrests.

School systems take all kinds of precautions in the name of student safety, from closed playgrounds and lockdowns to visitor check-in, but they won’t follow through to detect and remove school employees accused of molesting kids?

Nevada schools must do more to protect children — all children — and change the policies that allow predatory educators to dodge accountability. This isn’t a funding issue. It’s a cultural issue that must be corrected, starting today.