EDITORIAL: District D voters should send Kevin Child packing

Under the threat of court sanction, the Clark County School District on Tuesday released 104 pages of investigative materials involving the conduct of Trustee Kevin Child, who represents District D on the School Board. Voters in the district should take notice.

The probe, which included interviews with 29 people conducted from January 2016 to May 2017, reveal concerns that Mr. Child was routinely engaging in inappropriate behavior with district employees. Cedric Cole, the district’s head of diversity and affirmative action, concluded the trustee had created a hostile work environment and violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Such a finding could put the district at risk for legal action — indeed, the district has already settled a complaint from a former deputy superintendent.

The names of those interviewed were redacted, but a handful of women told investigators that Mr. Child made suggestive comments and that they felt fearful and uncomfortable around him. “I ask for safety protection from the toxic, harassing and intimidating interaction of the trustee,” one woman said in her statement.

Former Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky eventually banned Mr. Child from visiting district facilities without permission.

The question arises, however: Why did the district sit on the report and attempt to keep it from the public? If district officials had a problem with the behavior of Mr. Child, suppressing the results of the investigation served only to protect the trustee. How does that address the issue or advance the best interests of everyone else involved?

Yet for nearly a year, district lawyers refused to release details of the probe, citing employee confidentiality concerns. But last week, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled the district’s arguments for secrecy were specious and ran counter to state public record statutes.

Mr. Child maintains he has done nothing wrong and that Mr. Skorkowsky had a vendetta against him. But the breadth of the complaints against him raises numerous red flags and goes beyond social awkwardness. Mr. Child deserves his day in court, of course, and he has filed a lawsuit against the district and four other trustees alleging defamation and other wrongdoing.

In the meantime, though, Mr. Child — first elected four years ago — is locked in a race with Irene Cepeda, an employee at Nevada State College, to keep his seat. Mr. Child’s behavior as documented in the investigation is unbefitting of his position, to say the least. The district may have no way to remove an elected trustee, but the voters of District D sure do. They should seize the opportunity on Nov. 6 and send Kevin Child packing.