The Clark County School District has responded to a lawsuit filed by two parents over alleged “unlawful grooming and abuse of a minor” with a pornographic assignment.
The lawsuit filed by Candra Evans and Terrell Evans alleges that their daughter was required to read an extremely graphic monologue at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, which was declared too obscene to read out loud by adults during a school board meeting.
The complaint accuses the district, Superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara, and the teacher of “unlawful grooming and abuse of a minor” involving “pornographic material.” The material their daughter was ordered to read “contained explicit, obscene and sexually violent material,” the parents claim.
“[The teacher] helped the other student edit their obscenely violent pornographic monologue knowing that it would then be provided to another student to read, memorize and perform in front of the class,” the lawsuit said.
The monologue in question reads as follows:
“I don’t love you. It’s not you, it’s just (looks down) your d***. I don’t like your d*** or any d*** in that case. I cheated Joe. We were long distance and I’m in college and me and this girl, my roommate, started having some drinks and you know, I thought it was a one-time thing but then we started going out for coffee, and started sleeping in the same bed. I never thought it would get this far but God, it was like fireworks, and made me realize that with you it was always like a pencil sharpener that keeps getting jammed. I’ve tried to look at it from all different perspectives, but the truth is, I’m a f***** lesbian. I’ll never love you or any man, or any f****** d***. I hope you find a nice straight girl because that’s not me, and I’m tired of pretending that it is.”
When Candra Evans attempted to read the assignment during a school board meeting, her microphone was cut off.
“That you for your comment,” Trustee Evelyn Garcia Morales, who was leading the meeting, said. “Forgive me, we are not using profanity. This is a public meeting; I ask for decorum.”
The school district claimed in a new filing that the parents have engaged in “hyperbole and incendiary language,” according to a report from local station 8 News Now.
“The CCSD defendants take the allegations in the complaint very seriously and school administrators met with Mrs. Evans on multiple occasions in an attempt to address her concerns,” lawyers for the district and Jara write in their response. “However, their good faith efforts have been demonized by the hyperbole and incendiary language utilized in the pleadings filed on behalf of plaintiffs.”
The district claims that that the monologue was not grooming or abuse, because it was acting.
“The monologue was intended to be an expressive activity intended to further a student’s writing and acting experience,” lawyers for CCSD wrote in their response. “In the theatre classroom setting, there is an understanding that an actor does not necessarily have to accept or agree with the person they are portraying or the subject matter of the assignment.”
“Students were advised on multiple occasions that if they were uncomfortable with the subject matter of a monologue, they had the option of choosing a different monologue to present to the class,” CCSD lawyers claimed. “There are no allegations that [the student] expressed any concerns, discomfort, or misgivings about having performed the monologue to her mother.”