Parents: Students’ rights violated

Terry Webster

Monday, July 17, 2000 | 10:40 a.m.

A group punishment was levied on four students accused of damaging a school bus window, even though Clark County School District officials admit no one witnessed the act.

It was enough proof, school officials said, for a bus driver to document the damage and conclude four Opportunity School summer students who sat near the window were responsible.

The driver spotted an obscenity scratched on the window following a routine bus check, school district spokeswoman Mary Stanley-Larsen said. Buses are checked after each route is completed.

"There was damage to the window on that run, and the driver knew which kids were next to it," Stanley-Larsen said. "All four of them were involved in it, whether it was encouraging it, knowing about it or actually doing it."

She added, "As far as I know, nobody actually saw them do it."

Matthew Lusk, principal of the Juvenile Court Schools, where the Opportunity School summer classes are located, confirmed the version of events.

The Opportunity School caters to students who have been cited for behavioral problems such as disrupting class in regular schools. The Juvenile Court Schools are for those who have been expelled from the district. Both schools fall under alternative education.

The window must be replaced because of the vulgar language, officials said.

More than a window has been damaged, parents of the students say. The boys' right to due process has been too.

The students rode to school on the bus as usual July 6, but on their arrival at school they were told they could no longer use the bus, parent James Walker said. That left the students to find another way home on short notice that day and their parents to arrange other transportation to and from school from then on.

"The transportation system accused, tried and convicted them without a conference," Walker said. "This was a violation of their civil rights. Somebody did it. That was the extent of the investigation."

After parents and the Sun began making telephone calls to school officials, the bus service was reinstated, starting Wednesday. Lusk said he was out of town when the incident happened, but moved quickly to reinstate the students' bus service.

Parents of the students are still being asked, however, to pay about $75 each to replace the window.

Walker, who is on disability with a broken neck he suffered while playing basketball, said he can't afford it.

"Things are not going well right now," he said. "I am out of work and things are really tight."

Lusk said the students were not kicked out of school.

Students missed school days, though, because various reasons prevented parents from providing them with rides to school. Two of the students live about six miles away, so walking was not an option. Further, parents said they did not want their children riding the Citizens Area Transit system.

"We do not live in a good neighborhood," Walker said.