CCSD spends $500K fighting lawsuits as teacher lands new job

The Clark County School District has spent more than $500,000 defending two cases alleging that a former special education teacher — now teaching in Nye County — abused students.

The lawsuits filed by two families accuse Kasey Glass, a former teacher at Kirk Adams Elementary School in Las Vegas, of subjecting their autistic children to physical and verbal abuse in her classroom, behavior that they claim the district failed to properly report and take action on.

The complaint filed on behalf of one child identified as “HH” claims that Glass repeatedly pushed his head down with her foot. It also claims that Glass deprived him of food and drink at mealtime.

Another complaint for a child known as “LR” states that the child came home with injuries during the 2016-17 school year that he told his mother were caused by Glass. When his mother took the issue to Assistant Principal Allison Pokornik, she promised to investigate but failed to do so, according to the complaint.

That lawsuit also states that police were called to investigate a January 2017 incident in which another teacher observed Glass screaming at LR, yanking him by his arm and forcing him into a nearby bathroom as he resisted.

But the police detective did not follow up and closed the case, the complaint states — only to reopen it after Glass was accused of abusing two other students. LR’s mother was not notified of the incident, according to the complaint.

David Gluth, a lawyer for Glass in one of the cases, declined to comment and said Glass also would not comment.

One of the lawsuits indicates that a school police officer found probable cause to charge Glass with battery on an autistic nonverbal child and child neglect, and sought a warrant for her arrest — but the case did not move forward once it was referred to the district attorney’s office.

Officials in the DA’s office sought more information from school police that was never received, according to a spokeswoman.

Glass left the district in 2017 due to personal and family reasons, according to the district. She now teaches at Nye County School District, Superintendent Dale Norton confirmed.

“Our students are our highest priority and all NCSD employees, regardless of job duties, submit a pre-employment drug test, background checks are completed and references are contacted,” he said in an email.

It was not clear if Glass’ background check surfaced the abuse allegations against her.

The Clark County School District is fighting for medical records of the mother of “HH,” arguing in court filings that she has a history with Child Protective Services and mental health issues that likely adversely impacted her son.

The district declined to comment due to the litigation.

As of June 6, the district had spent $529,224 on both cases, according to public records obtained by the Review-Journal.

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