Lawsuit claims CCSD substitute teacher choked student and was not disciplined
The Clark County School District faces a lawsuit alleging that a substitute teacher beat and choked a middle school student, then faced no consequences from staff or the district.
The complaint filed Monday states that the teacher, Nicholas Kovalenko, started a discussion about race and prejudice that upset some students while substituting at Mack Middle School.
According to the suit, Kovalenko yelled at the students, kept them in the classroom after the bell rang, then beat one student and choked him with a cane.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Kovalenko declined to comment. School officials said they would not comment on pending litigation.
Nikkol Covarrubio, the boy’s mother, said the discussion about race started when Kovalenko described a juice drink a student had as a “colored” drink and the class went crazy, with some students thinking he made a racist statement.
Another teacher came in to help Kovalenko settle the class down, and afterward the boy stood up to throw something away but Kovalenko tapped him on the chest with his cane to signal for him to go back to his seat, according to Covarrubio.
She said Kovalenko blocked the doorway after the bell rang for the end of the class. Her son said Kovalenko wasn’t his dad and went to grab the door handle, and Covarrubio said the teacher threw her son up against the wall and pinned him by the neck with his cane.
The lawsuit accuses the school district and the principal of Mack Middle School, Roxanne James, of sweeping the allegations against Kovalenko “under the rug” and blaming the altercation on the student that Kovalenko allegedly beat and choked.
“After the incident my son was treated like the suspect,” Covarrubio said in an email. “The principal and campus police questioned him as if he was a suspect, they never asked if he was OK.”
Covarrubio said her son was suspended for two days after the altercation. When he returned from suspension, Covarrubio said, the principal and campus police interviewed her son without either parent present, then took his phone and sent him to the disciplinary classroom.
According to Covarrubio, she and her husband pulled their son from school after he emailed her from the disciplinary classroom saying he didn’t feel safe, and he hasn’t returned.
“No one was there to help or stop what happened to my son,” Covarrubio said. “I just kept thinking, ‘What if he held the cane to his neck too long?’ I would have been getting a different phone call.”
The complaint said the boy was a good student who got good grades and did not pose any disciplinary concerns before the altercation. Covarrubio said her son has been attending therapy since the altercation.
The lawsuit seeks in excess of $15,000 in special and general damages, in excess of $15,000 in punitive damages and all costs and attorney fees.
Neal Hyman, the attorney representing the boy’s family, said the school district has denied all liability in the case, meaning the district claims either the altercation didn’t happen or the student provoked the teacher and Kovalenko was defending himself.
Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCredicoII. Staff writer Julie Wootton-Greener contributed to this report.
