Marie Neisess, left, president of the CCEA, and executive director John Vellardita, right, confer in a hallway following a hearing at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. District Court Judge Crystal Eller issued a strike injunction against the teachers union.
Monday, Nov. 13, 2023 | 4:30 p.m.
The Clark County Education Association will appeal a judge’s rejection of its argument that the Clark County School District infringed on the teachers union’s free speech rights when it sued to prevent an illegal strike.
CCEA sought a dismissal of the district’s lawsuit with a motion claiming that CCSD violated Nevada’s anti-SLAPP law with its suit. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, which are used to chill or retaliate against free speech.
Clark County District Judge Jessica Peterson denied the motion in September through a preliminary oral order that she followed up on last week with a written order.
“Plaintiff is not attempting to keep the teachers or the union from petitioning or from speaking out about issues that are affecting the teachers. Rather, plaintiff’s lawsuit was brought to stop the teachers from engaging in a strike, which is illegal and thus is not protected,” Peterson wrote in rejecting the union’s motion.
CCEA attorney Bradley Schrager confirmed Monday that the union was taking its appeal before the Nevada Supreme Court, and it will be separate from its pending appeal of the injunction blocking the continuation of what another district judge ruled was a rolling teachers’ strike.
The legal saga between CCSD and CCEA, which represents CCSD’s 18,000 teachers, is part of their bitter fight over a new teacher contract.
CCSD in September declared an impasse in its negotiations after 11 bargaining sessions failed to yield an agreement. The matter is now bound for arbitration, a historically slow-moving process. CCSD said an arbitrator has been identified but no hearing dates are set yet.
The school district launched its lawsuit based on what it considered credible verbal threats of a work stoppage, although union leaders and members never used the word “strike” and instead said “work actions” were possible if the union did not have a new contract by Aug. 26.
State law bars strikes, and threats of strikes, by public employees, and the law defines “strike” broadly. That includes sickouts, whereby employees coordinate unwarranted sick time as a protest against working conditions but without formally striking.
On Aug. 22, Peterson denied CCSD’s motion to enjoin, or prevent, a strike on the reasoning that she didn’t have enough information to do so. At the time she said she found comments made by CCEA’s executive director “concerning” and that she would entertain another school district motion for an injunction if further developments justified it.
On Sept. 13, CCSD successfully argued that a rolling sickout was ongoing. Judge Crystal Eller, holding the union responsible, issued the injunction after teacher sick calls led to eight school closures, each lasting one day, popped up throughout the valley in early and mid-September.
Although CCEA denied involvement in the sickouts, the union sued the district and the state of Nevada last month in district court to overturn the sections of state law prohibiting teacher strikes. That case is also pending, awaiting replies from both the district and state.
