Mother sues CCSD, says it failed to protect beaten and bullied daughter
A middle school student’s mother who said her daughter was beaten and bullied by other students is suing the Clark County School District, which she says failed to keep her daughter safe at school, according to a lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by attorney Mysty Langford in District Court on behalf of Tomekia Smith, alleged the school district failed to protect Smith’s daughter, an eighth grader at Johnston Middle School in North Las Vegas, from students who were known threats to her safety.
“The bullying to which (Smith’s daughter) has been subjected has been persistent, pervasive and damaging to her health, safety and education,” the complaint filed in the lawsuit said. “Defendants’ deliberate indifference to the known and repeated acts of bullying and violence caused foreseeable harm.”
The school district said it does not comment on pending litigation.
‘Escalating bullying’
The complaint alleged Smith’s daughter had been chased home, harassed, threatened and bullied by a set of students at the middle school during the start of the 2024-2025 school year. The “escalating bullying” described in the lawsuit caused Smith to file a bullying report with the Clark County School District Police Department on behalf of her daughter.
The lawsuit said Smith had attempted to call and visit Johnston leaders, but was not permitted to speak with the principal and “was referred away without meaningful action.”
Around Dec. 13, the lawsuit said, three students attacked and beat Smith’s daughter at Johnston Middle School, causing injuries that required emergency treatment at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. “As a result of the attack, (Smith’s daughter) has suffered, and continues to suffer, physical, mental and emotional injuries,” the lawsuit said.
After the attack, a service organization intervened to remove Smith’s daughter from a “hostile environment,” the lawsuit claimed. The service organization got Smith’s daughter off the school’s grounds for one day, but was not granted a more permanent solution, according to Langford.
When Smith confronted the school’s leaders, the lawsuit alleged, administrators told her to “let it die down over the Christmas break.” However, the complaint argued, the bullying Smith’s daughter faced escalated in January. The lawsuit said Smith’s daughter was threatened with harm from a student in a bathroom at Johnston Middle School, and other students joined in harassing her.
Failure to enforce safety
The suit also alleged that the safety plan and no-contact agreement created to protect Smith’s daughter were not enforced.
At school, the students who bullied Smith’s daughter were allowed to remain in her classes, and she was placed in the same “in-school suspension” room as her bullies, according to the lawsuit.
In a conversation with Smith, the lawsuit alleged, administrators told her they “could not and would not” protect her daughter from the bullying she faced. The complaint said Smith eventually withdrew her daughter from Johnston Middle School and placed her in homebound schooling, a service the school district provides for students who are unable to physically attend school due to medical or psychiatric conditions.
Bullying in CCSD
A similar lawsuit was filed in July by the mother of another Johnston student, alleging the school failed to protect her son after “persistent and pervasive” bullying. The student in the July lawsuit was also hospitalized after being physically attacked by another student.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal previously reported that bullying in the school district has been an issue. The school district saw 10,000 instances of bullying and nearly 2,000 instances of cyberbullying in the 2023-2024 school year.
Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.
