CCSD settles lawsuit over inappropriate sexual monologue assignment
The Clark County School District settled a two-year-old lawsuit with parents who complained of an inappropriate assignment for their high school daughter.
CCSD paid $25,000 and agreed to conduct an review with administrators and staff at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, where the incident occurred.
At a Clark County School Board meeting in May 2022, Candra Evans testified about an assignment that she said was given to her daughter at the school. The assignment required that students in the theater class write drafts of a monologue that would then be randomly assigned to, memorized and performed by another student, according to the lawsuit.
The full monologue describes a woman coming out as a lesbian to her ex-boyfriend, and contains lines, such as “I don’t like your d--- or any d--- in that case.”
Board members interrupted her and asked her to refrain from using profanity.
“If you don’t want me to read it to you, what was it like for my 15-year-old daughter to memorize pornographic material…?” Evans asked at the time.
Evans’ comment to the board went viral after a shortened version of the clip was reposted by a conservative Twitter account that criticized the board for interrupting Evans’ comment and asking her to refrain from using profanity.
At the time, the district said in a statement that it was investigating the situation and that the assignment was a student-generated writing exercise that “produced content not conducive to student instruction.”
The original December 2022 lawsuit, filed by Candra and Terrell Evans, sought damages in excess of $50,000 as well as a restraining order against the teacher and other administrators. The judge dismissed the request for a restraining order and all claims except those involving the student’s assignment, her First Amendment rights and her treatment afterward.
On Monday evening, Evans said she was grateful that the case was finally over. She said that she had just wanted to protect her daughter, whom she believed had been “brainwashed” by the teacher.
“Because a teacher thought it was OK to read that, she thought it was OK to read it,” Evans told the Review-Journal on Monday.
CCSD did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit described Hawes’ assignment as unlawful and inappropriate and constituted “sexual grooming” and sexual indoctrination of her students.
Her story gained traction as one of parental rights. Local group Power 2 Parent came to Evans’ aid in contacting the school, and her legal case was represented by the American Center for Law and Justice, which describes itself as a politically conservative, Christian-based legal organization.
In a statement on its website after the settlement, the legal center wrote, “This case underscores the crucial role parents play in advocating for their children’s welfare and the need for schools to respect and uphold parental rights. Parents have an absolute right to know what their children are being taught, and children should never be subjected to obscene material, particularly in an environment meant to educate and nurture.”
Evans also hoped her lawsuit would help future kids.
“Now this is precedent,” she said.
Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.
