Lawsuit threatened over test allegation

Terry Webster

Friday, Nov. 17, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

A law firm has sent a warning letter to the former School Board candidate who accused a school district employee of attempting to sell answers to the Nevada High School Proficiency exam.

Representing the employee, Hale, Lane, Peek, Dennison, Howard & Anderson on Tuesday sent a letter to Beatrice Turner, who accused the employee publicly at a School Board meeting. Turner said the employee offered to sell her the answers for $400 after learning that Turner's daughter had failed the test.

The letter warns Turner that the firm will easily be able to prove that she "willfully lied."

The letter states that Turner's actions are grounds for a civil lawsuit. Further, the letter directs Turner to stop "making defamatory statements" and to "issue a public retraction."

Turner said Thursday she stands by her allegations.

The law firm sent copies of the letter to School Board members, Superintendent Carlos Garcia, Assistant Superintendent Edward Goldman, the district's attorney, Bill Hoffman, and other officials.

The accused school employee attended Thursday's School Board meeting. The employee, who announced that the expense of the law firm will be absorbed personally, asked for the school district's support in dismissing the allegation as false.

The allegation first came up on Las Vegas ONE's DayONE morning talk show. Turner said the employee made the offer after learning Turner's daughter failed the math portion of the exam in May 1999.

Turner then named the employee she is accusing at the Nov. 9 School Board meeting. At first, she handed the board a bag and said the board members could put a certain employee's head in it. Afterward, in a hallway outside the meeting room, she told reporters that, yes, the person she named in conjunction with the bag stunt was indeed the same employee who offered to sell her the answers.

Turner's allegation followed an allegation by former teacher Ramona Johnson, who had alleged that teachers were cheating on standardized tests in order to boost their performances. The allegation resulted in a legislative hearing and an internal investigation ordered by Garcia, neither of which has yet produced any conclusions. Former students at Rancho High School also have alleged that teachers helped them during standardized testing.

In another development regarding allegations of testing impropriety, Debra Jackson, a parent whose children graduated from the Clark County School District, produced testing documents at Thursday's board meeting.

She said the documents, used to evaluate special education students, were left under her doormat by someone.

School Board President Mary Beth Scow asked Garcia to look into the matter and report back to the board.

"I don't know why we want to sit up here and act like there's no such thing as giving (away) a test or selling a test or whatever," Jackson said.

"We have had indiscretions and discrepancies in the district. You have thousands and thousands of great, wonderful teachers. But we do have people who are not perfect and don't do the right thing."