The violence in Southern Nevada schools took a shocking turn in the past few weeks when students reportedly attacked and/or threatened several teachers, including three teachers in just one day.

This week on Nevada Week, we address the situation with the superintendent of the Clark County School District as well as the president of the teachers' union.

Plus, could putting volunteer "Dads in Schools" make a difference?

One local man hopes so.

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Welcome to Nevada Week; I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

It was only a few weeks ago we talked about violence in our schools here on Nevada Week, but since then teachers have become the target in some of the more troubling cases.

The most horrific happened when a 16-year-old student reportedly snuck back into school after classes were over and attacked a teacher.

He now faces charges of attempted murder and sexual assault, according to the District Attorney's office.

Joining us to talk about what he calls a crisis in the community is Jesus Jara, the Clark County School District superintendent and Marie Neisess, president of the Clark County Education Association, Nevada's largest teachers' union.

Thank you both for being here on this very important topic.

Dr. Jara, this week you were quoted as saying that the violence in the schools is keeping you up every night, but you also said that there's a quote, "crisis in the community "that's come into our schools."

Why not say it's a crisis in our schools if that's where the violence is happening?

(Dr. Jesus Jara) Well, when you think about and go back and look, you just said, you know, three incidents in a day.

You know, when we serve 366 schools and 305,000 children in the Clark County School District, what I'm seeing and what we are all seeing is what's happening out not only in the community and what we're seeing across the country, it's coming into our schools.

Last night there was a shooting out in the community.

What we're seeing is that young people are making horrific choices, and violent acts against our most pressured educators who come to school to teach, to learn.

We are not seeing it across the board.

One of the things that when we looked at it and I was quoted last-- I think it was a couple of days ago, we were celebrating educators.

We were celebrating teachers and principals for one of the best schools in the country, and I think we often miss an opportunity to celebrate success.

The notion that these acts and these things are happening in our schools across the entire school district, to me it's not starting on campus.

You know, we had another incident at another school and a student making some bad choices that was out in the community.

Our police officers have also mentioned, you know, we're arresting adults that's coming onto our campuses, adult and adult violence as well, and I think everything starts at home.

Everything starts out in the community, and we are doing what we can to address it, to keep our employees safe and, of course, our children.

I think that is the big core issue that we have, it's starting outside and coming in.

-That is a unique aspect of the school violence is that parents have become involved.

Marie, you did talk to that teacher we mentioned who was attacked following the attack, and what did she want people to know about the situation?

(Marie Neisess) Well, she said she understands that this isn't an overnight fix.

You know, what happened to her was horrific but in the moment, the day I met with her, she was concerned about the safety of not only her students but her colleagues.

You know, what are we going to do to make Eldorado safe?

What are we going to do to make all schools safe?

And she understands when you're talking with campuses that are as large as Eldorado, you know, how do you do that?

How do you do that overnight?

There's not an overnight switch.

But she was just concerned that, you know, how are they going to make immediate changes to the entry points and exit points for students and staff to ensure that they're safe?

-And I believe she also mentioned that she was concerned about how many adults were on campus, had there been more adults on campus, and I'm wondering, who are these adults?

Are these adults that are hired or are these volunteer adults?

Who could help out in the situation?

-So this is starting my 29th year in CCSD, and throughout the years that I've been here, we've always had a critical shortage of specific job classifications.

Right now what we need most is our social workers, our counselors, our educators who can provide the mental health needs that our kids are suffering from, and that starts at the elementary level.

One of the educators we met with at Eldorado, we had a meeting last Friday with some legislators to hear, you know, firsthand from those educators who are facing these issues what their concerns are, what their ideas are of making changes, and it always comes back to the lack of funding and how can we make sure we staff up to the optimal level that we need to have, and it's always been lack of funding.

-Yes.

I mean, just to piggyback, the last time the Clark County School District opened fully staffed in classrooms was 1994.

So 1994 was the last time that we opened our schools on the first day of school with every classroom filled with teachers.

So it's been a challenge here.

You know, when we produce in the higher ed system 900 teachers a year in the entire state for all schools, I need 2,000 teachers a year just for attrition and continuation.

So are we producing more educators, you know, more classroom teachers, more social workers, school psychologists?

So that's been an ongoing staff shortage here.

When you are talking about, and what the teacher-- and all our educators are saying, what our principals are telling me, I need more bodies.

You know, it's something that the lack of funding historically in the K-12 education system is now coming to a halt here-- and it's not a halt, it's coming to really fruition in saying what are we going to do?

How are we going to invest in the K-12 system to make sure we have the needs for our kids?

Coming out of this pandemic our kids, just like the community, everybody's struggling.

Our educators are struggling, we're all struggling to keep up with what we need for our kids, and I think that isn't it.

That's what I say is the crisis.

It's not just the violence, it's the entire crisis that this community needs to really support and be able to help us do this job.

-Help me if I'm understanding this correctly.

When you talk about adults on campus, you're talking both about the need to address mental health issues, but in this particular attack, was she referring to physical bodies on campus, perhaps volunteers, security guards for more physical safety or is it a combination of both that's needed?

-She said that when they opened the school and during COVID, you know, you had certain procedures in place to ensure the safety of students when it comes to interactions and how many kids are in the hallway.

She said that now that schools are basically back-- not back to normal, but open to where, you know, kids have a little more freedom, the issue was there were more adults in the hallways to monitor kids prior, and then now recently kids are fighting after school so the adults, the urgency is to have adults outside of the campus at release time to ensure the safety of students.

So she felt that if there were more monitors in the hallway making sure students go out and don't come back in, then that would have been helpful.

-Is that an issue, COVID protocols not allowing as many adults back into the building?

-No, I think it goes back to the needs where we're seeing altercations outside of the schools, and we're looking at inside our buildings.

I think that it's both, as you asked a question.

It's adults, it's volunteers, it's more more adults to supervise our kids.

And we're facing at Eldorado and we have a great principal that we've placed there, and this could have happened on any campus.

I want to make sure that it's not just an Eldorado issue.

It could have happened on any campus what happened there, and what we're needing to look at is how do we keep by the staffing, you know, the hiring of staff?

And I think that is what we're seeing across all industries.

It's not just in schools.

It's impacting us in schools but, you know, we have a shortage of security monitors.

We have a shortage of support professionals.

You know, the teacher vacancy, the substitutes, and we're using our extra dollars to incentivize, and a great partnership with our teachers union we're doing retention bonuses, we've done relocation, you know, to try to bring folks here, but that is an immediate short-term fix.

What is it long term?

What is the long term that we need to look at moving forward, and that's where we need to-- we have a legislative session coming that we need to have this conversation.

-What are you telling people that are considering becoming teachers, what is your pitch?

-You know what, I'm going to tell you.

I was at Rancho this morning, and we have a Teacher Academy, and I talked to the kids.

First thing I said to them, I said they have a job as soon as they're done because we're going to need them.

I said it's the most noble, it's the best profession that you can go into, to really change lives, and I talked about my experience when I was a teacher and when I was a principal.

I still remember my fourth grade was Ms. Kilbride.

I have kids that have-- you know, and I told the kids, they find me on Facebook.

Well, they told me I age myself because being on Facebook is for old people.

But I said I have kids that have found me that I stay in touch with that were my students.

So I say that, and building the partnership.

We're expanding, looking at UNLV and Nevada State College and UNR as well to bring folks into the classroom.

But I tell them it's the best profession you can go into if you're going to change lives.

-Marie, what have you heard from teachers?

I think they had hoped that coming back from spring break, the security, new safety measures that were talked about and promised would already be in place.

Was that their understanding and how realistic, and that's not the case, right?

-Well, clearly we have like Dr. Jara said over 360 schools, so how do we implement these changes overnight?

That's just not an overnight fix, and some of the schools are older.

The cameras needed to be updated, and it always again goes back to funding.

So our educators have been angry, they've been scared and they've been frustrated.

We did recently touch base with some-- again, the educators at Eldorado, the morale is starting to be more positive.

They're starting to realize there are some changes being made, but they're still scared.

This is a scary situation where your life could be on the line, and we've never really thought about it that way.

You go into it for the right reasons for it, to be there for students, so we want an overnight fix but there's funding that needs to be attached to that, and there is no overnight fix.

-What are some of the measures, and we're talking about Eldorado High School.

Is that the only school where there have been the safety measures implemented so far?

-So the immediacy is because I heard the teachers loud and clear.

The next morning after the incident, I was there at 6:30 and I was part of the faculty meeting with staff and I understood.

But I needed to be there so they know that it was my number-one priority from my office, and we moved swiftly.

We've put in at Eldorado, we've already put some systems in place, electronic systems for instant alert for the school.

We're analyzing the cameras obviously, that was a concern there.

We're analyzing a lot of the electronic surveillance.

We're also already moving around the perimeter as well, and those are some of the things that we've already trained our staff.

So the entire staff at Eldorado has been trained in how to use it.

So that's immediate, and I think that went live on Wednesday.

So that's where we are now.

We're analyzing how to, as Marie mentioned, all the different-- you know, where every school is in the networking, in the electronics.

-You have to go physically-- -Absolutely.

-And assess every single school and its needs based on how old the school is.

-There's some systems that have been in place and haven't been touched since 2002.

So we're doing all of that.

I'm getting a weekly briefing from the team, and we'll start communicating as we go forward.

So Eldorado, we're moving and I hear from the principal that the teachers feel that they're supported and that we heard them loud and clear.

Now it's how do we then start prioritizing the rest of our high schools?

We are going to start with high schools, then go to middle schools, and then get to elementary schools, 366 schools.

So that is our pathway.

Now, Districtwide we already put out our instant alert from our phones so that is already across the entire District, and in my communication to the children, I put out a video and I said to the students hey, this behavior is not going to be tolerated.

You will be prosecuted, and we've seen that some kids have already-- you know, some kids responded back and said thank you.

-I want to make sure I get one more topic in talking about disciplinary measures.

You have talked about that zero tolerance does not work, but then I've also heard you mention, Marie, that you believe the District is going to try and get the state law changed, change how disciplinary measures are implemented as far as when there's fighting.

It's changed in that if there is fighting, it used to not be-- you couldn't just expel a student, but now it's gotten a little bit different.

I mean, are you on the same page is what I'm asking.

You think that they're going to ask the legislature to change some of those restorative justice practices.

-Well, I can't speak for CCSD, but I can speak for CCEA, and our agenda is that we need to change it for the better.

Part of it is when you have an unfunded mandate, it doesn't work.

-Are you going to be asking the legislature?

-Well, we have to look at exactly what's the intent of the law, right?

And we're on the same page.

I think we are.

-But you say restorative justice works, and you say no.

-Well, here's what-- -No, I don't-- it's not that I don't believe it works.

In theory it absolutely can if we have the resources to implement it correctly.

-Okay.

-That's exactly right.

I mean, on tonight's board agenda, there's an item for a grant for $1.8 million for professional development.

So we are going to invest.

What I say is we just can't throw kids out onto the street, but we can't tolerate it and we haven't, and we don't tolerate what's happening to our educators.

-Both of you, thank you so much for your time.

-Thank you.

-Local leaders have stressed how important parental involvement can be in helping stem school violence, and it is a call to action that longtime community activist and organizer Pastor Troy Martinez answered in emphatic fashion with the creation of Dads in Schools.

Pastor Troy Martinez, welcome.

What does Dads in Schools do?

How were you inspired to start this?

(Troy Martinez) Well, thank you for having us, and one of the things that inspired us the most is hearing the cry and the need from the teachers, the parents, the students themselves and staff from the School District that were facing these type of challenges and violence in their very own schools and just outside of the school and in the surrounding neighborhoods.

-What is it that Dads in Schools does?

-So Dads in Schools is a program that just this year, March 24, the School Board of Trustees voted unanimously to allow Districtwide volunteers to sign up to partner directly with principals at their own school campuses in their own neighborhoods to help bring safety and add more adult supervision on those campuses.

-So what does that look like?

You have volunteers in the schools, just outside the schools, and what do they do?

-So each school should have a tailored effort, so what we're hearing is some of the principals want the volunteers in the hallways.

They want them during lunch hour.

One of the biggest things we've heard is especially like in a middle school and high school where there's thousands of students, they have three time periods just for lunch.

So you got 1,500 students going in and out.

There's these big fire doors, and something as simple as holding the big metal fire doors open by the volunteers while the students transition can stop some of the altercations, bumping into each other, and it escalates into, you know, violent verbiage and then sometimes even fights.

-If there is a fight, will your volunteer be allowed to step in?

-So the School District has policies that we're bound to, so any of the same policies our volunteers would be bound to those.

But one thing we can tell you is that for instance just off campus when students are released at ending bell is one of the times that we've seen the altercations and fights, and even sometimes it's escalated into gunfire.

But having the presence of adults can prevent that from ever taking place, so that's the goal is to make sure we don't have to even see a fight much less break it up.

-Okay.

So you're hoping there won't be a fight, but if there is, does your volunteer get involved to break it up?

-So our volunteers are not necessarily there to break up fights.

We have the School District Police, we have the deans, we have others that are trained to do just that.

-Will they, though?

-They're going to take-- first of all, the principals will have volunteers that have passed an FBI background check.

They'll have principal-led training, and in that there will be an agreement between those volunteers and that principal to say what they want to see them do.

What we don't want our volunteers to do is be in the middle of breaking a fight up.

What we do want to do, what we do want to see is that those volunteers cause that fight to never take place.

We just saw a terrible incident at Western High School where there was a shooting in the parking lot.

If there was volunteers there just after school, those people that drove up may have never got onto school property.

It would have been a deterrent.

If there was someone in the hallway the day that horrible event took place at Eldorado, I don't believe that would have ever took place.

If we would have had a 220-pound man in his uniform that's highly visible and a deterrent to that teacher ever being assaulted, think about the morale and the safety that teachers and staff would feel just knowing you have someone right there just outside your door in that hallway that's there to protect you.

-What kind of uniforms are you wearing, what you're wearing?

-So these will be the uniforms we use just off campus.

For those that want to be on campus that passed the background check, they'll we wearing an NFL jersey, like referee style jerseys because again we want to be highly visible.

We want the students and the staff to know just like a referee, they're there not to be in the game, they're there to create a fair atmosphere.

-I think it says a lot that there are these individual agreements between the principal and these volunteers that are established between themselves and the School Board voted to allow this to happen because, I mean, I think it could open them up to liabilities, right?

Does it speak to the need?

-Well, there's thousands of volunteers for the School District now, everything from people that volunteer to clean up to going to read to students, so any one of our volunteers will have to go through the same protocol, same background check as any volunteer, and the fact is that there's a need.

There's a need for safety.

The next generation, the next level of workforce for Nevada is our students, and if they can't learn, they're not going to be able to go earn a wage.

So it's important they get a fair opportunity to learn, and the volunteers will provide that by being there to make sure it's safe.

The fact that it's, you know, dangerous for let's say a volunteer who's a grown man and again muscular, weighing 200 pounds, well, what about that three-year-old that's in pre-K and they're seeing violence?

That's not fair.

So we need to make sure that we're there to protect them, even if there's some risk at all for us grown men.

-And for a little bit more context on that young of an age, we were talking off camera about elementary schools being positioned so closely to middle schools sometimes and what they're seeing.

How is that situation working out?

-One of the things that a good friend of mine, the U.S. marshal of Nevada, Gary Schofield told me, he said, you know, a lot of the parents don't even know the name of the principal where they drop off their children for six hours a day, so there's a disconnect.

We need to bring the community back and get them involved.

Most people don't know right across the street from an elementary school where the age range is like somewhere between 3 and let's say 11, right across the street, we have 12-15 year-olds that are as big as grown men and they're sometimes engaged in violent activity, fights, they jump each other, and it spills out right into the street or even onto the elementary school campus.

So one of the first schools that we'll be serving, we'll be there right after school to make sure that elementary school where parents are picking up their three-year-old, their five-year-old, their eight-year-old will have an extra layer of security and confidence that their children are safe.

-How many volunteers do you currently have, and how many schools are you in?

-So right now we have 86 schools that have requested Dads in Schools.

We have over 300 volunteers signed up on our website, dadsinschools.com, and we're looking for additional volunteers.

We'd like to see at least 10 volunteers per campus, so even if we had that amount right now, we would need 860 men to be available.

So we're working on it, and men are stepping up.

They are getting involved, and it is a process.

But we'll be out there as soon as just after Mother's Day, just off campus to make sure that it's safe for these children.

-In some of your interactions with these kids, what are you hearing?

What do you believe is behind the violence we're seeing?

-Well, there's an old saying, if you want to see what's troubling a child, follow them home.

I can tell you what we're hearing from the students, what we're hearing from the parents is many of the problems the children are facing, it's not coming from the school.

It's coming from the community, it's coming from the home, and when they go into the school, they take all that anger, all that frustration.

They're only on campus six hours, even less for the younger children, and the rest of the day, they're at home, they're in the community, and they're seeing violence.

They're facing violence, they're hearing violence.

There's just some challenges like housing, dysfunction, addictions all at once and then coming back from COVID where for a year they didn't see their friends, they wore masks when they did come back and then all of a sudden they take the masks off.

At that age you change a lot in a year and a half, and they don't even recognize some of their own friends' faces.

It's just an odd time for our children.

-Why dads?

What difference does a dad make, and also you are open to moms getting involved in some way.

-Yes.

Telling you this, I was raised with nine aunts and one uncle, and my mom was a single mom.

So we know the power of a mom.

The moms are not excluded.

Phase one is Dads in Schools.

We're hoping that after the successful launch in every single school that requests it, that phase two-- and you're the first to hear about this-- will be the Moms on a Mission for the School District where they can get involved also.

But we're taking moms signing up right now.

One of the things that some of the moms will be helping us with is encouraging the teachers.

Many of the teachers are female, and they're discouraged.

They're afraid.

One of them told me I feel like we're behind enemy lines and no one knows we're here.

Just to have those moms interacting, giving them a thank you card, knowing their name so they realize that they're not alone.

-Pastor Troy Martinez, thank you so much for coming in.

And thank you for joining us on Nevada Week.

For any of the resources discussed including a link to the Dads in Schools website, go to our website, vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek or follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @nevadaweek.

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