Students knelt during anthem, sparked outcry from School Board Trustee Kevin Child, records show

School Board Trustee Kevin Child appeared so upset that players knelt for the national anthem at a prep football game that he questioned the students’ right to stage such a protest, records obtained Monday by the Las Vegas Review-Journal show.

The confrontation occurred at an Oct. 7 game between two teams whose names were redacted, records released by the Clark County School District show, and added to the complaints about Child that trace to April 2014.

After players from the visiting team knelt during the anthem, Child sought out the employee in the stands and motioned for him. Child then asked what was going to be done about the players’ actions, the employee wrote in the complaint.

The incident occurred around the time San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem at NFL games to protest racial injustice in America. The act resonated nationwide with athletes in various sports and also filtered down to the high school level.

The employee told Child that the players were not causing a disruption or breaking any laws or school rules, but Child appeared angered by that response.

Child made numerous statements, according to the complaint, including: “We gave them their freedom. What more do they want?”

“This statement caused me great grief, because I took it to be a racist statement at the very least,” the employee wrote Oct. 11.

The complaint also states that Child told the employee: “I know they think it’s their rights, but these kids don’t have rights. They can’t vote.”

Child suggested that he should talk to the players about not standing for the anthem. The employee was so worried that Child might try to speak to the team that he quickly made his way to the field as the game neared conclusion.

“I informed the head coach (name redacted) that I wanted him to get the team off the field as quickly as possible,” the employee wrote.

Child also said he’d “be talking to Pat (Skorkowsky) and Trustee (Carolyn) Edwards about this situation,” according to the complaint.

Edwards declined to comment Monday on whether Child spoke to her about the incident. Skorkowsky was not immediately available to comment on that specific complaint. Child did not respond to requests for comment.

DOCUMENTS RELEASED

District officials began releasing some documents Wednesday after a judge ordered them to do so in response to a Review-Journal lawsuit. A court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday to determine the district’s legal basis for not strictly fulfilling the request.

The employee’s complaint was part of 10 pages of new records detailing eight issues with Child from July to October 2016.

Those incidents occurred about four months after Child was formally confronted in March by district officials about concerns over his behavior. Officials subsequently launched an investigation of Child in September that ended in October. In December, Skorkowsky barred Child from visiting schools without written permission, among other guidelines handed down.

Documents released Monday also include additional complaints from Child’s social media post in July.

Child had stirred negative reaction from the community after he asked on Facebook: “If protesters are in the road and blocking it and not in the crosswalk … would you run them over?”

The post came right after a truck driver killed people after driving through a Bastille Day celebration in France. It also came as tensions heightened between police and the crowds that gathered nationwide to protest the killings of unarmed black men.

The post prompted action from the NAACP’s Las Vegas branch, which wrote to the district a week later.

“It is outrageous that an elected official, charged with ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children, would tacitly encourage violence against people expressing their constitutionally guaranteed rights of speech,” President Roxann McCoy wrote the school board. “What if students and parents took to the streets to protest policies of this school board? Would Trustee Child question whether drivers should target those protesters as well?”

The letter had one message to Child’s fellow trustees: “It is up to this Board to act.”

Child told the Review-Journal at the time that he was just trying to find out who the evil people are in the community.

‘APPALLED’ OVER REMARKS

In August, one teacher’s letter of resignation, which was sent to Skorkowsky, cited Child’s actions among the reasons for departure.

The letter states that many teachers were “appalled” when they discovered insensitive remarks Child made on social media.

“Many teachers want to speak up but are fearful of retaliation,” the teacher wrote. “With a person in this position of power such as Mr. Child, there is no excuse for acting unprofessional on social media … Sadly, I do not want to work for a school district that doesn’t take these kinds of actions seriously. Why is his behavior acceptable?”

Skorkowsky forwarded that resignation to then-Board President Linda Young, records show.

The district and trustees have not commented on the complaints, citing ongoing litigation with the Review-Journal.

Child has called the complaints a smear campaign, arguing that he deserves to face his accusers.

“They’re made-up stories probably, because there’s no names on it,” he said after the district first released records of complaints last week.

Contact Amelia Pak-Harvey at 702-383-4630 or apak-harvey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AmeliaPakHarvey on Twitter.