CCSD Set to Pay $1M After Sub Allegedly Hit Autistic Boy With Shoe

The Clark County School District Board of Trustees is set to consider a $1 million settlement Thursday in a federal lawsuit accusing a substitute teacher of hitting a 13-year-old autistic student three times with a shoe at Molasky Junior High School. The parents, Vanessa Valladares and Michael Saavedra, say campus police determined the allegations should be handled administratively rather than as a crime, and that the district never disciplined the employee involved.

Lawsuit Details Alleged Shoe Strikes at Molasky

According to the lawsuit, the incident took place in October 2023, when a substitute teacher allegedly struck the boy three times with a shoe. As reported by KLAS 8 News Now, which is not identifying the substitute teacher, the child became fearful of returning to Molasky for his education afterward, and his parents reportedly transferred him to Brinley Middle School that same month. Federal court records show the civil suit, filed March 21, 2025 on behalf of the couple's minor son and identified in filings as Case No. 2:25-cv-00536-CDS-BNW, named educator Carole Riordan as a co-defendant alongside the school district, according to Justia Law.

The lawsuit alleges the Clark County School District Police Department determined the allegations against the substitute should be handled administratively rather than criminally. The district, per the same account, did not discipline the employee. Whether state licensing authorities have since taken any action regarding the educator named in the federal filings remains an open question.

Statute Requires Multi-Agency Reporting

Nevada Revised Statute 392.4633 explicitly bans corporal punishment in public schools, defining it as the intentional infliction of physical pain or physical restraint on a student for disciplinary purposes, with force permitted only for self-defense or to secure a dangerous object, according to the Nevada Legislature. The same statute requires that if a child welfare agency substantiates a corporal punishment complaint, the matter must be forwarded to the Nevada Department of Education, local law enforcement, and the district attorney's office for potential investigation, per Justia Law. The lawsuit's central friction, as outlined in the research surrounding the case, is that CCSD Police categorized the incident as an administrative matter rather than triggering that mandated reporting chain.

A procedural order in April paused the case while the two sides pursued mediation. U.S. Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler granted a 60-day stay of discovery on April 22, 2026, after CCSD and the plaintiffs jointly asked to pursue formal mediation, according to PacerMonitor. That pause in litigation set the stage for the settlement now headed to the school board.

Part of a Broader Pattern of CCSD Settlements

The proposed $1 million settlement is scheduled for review at the Clark County School District Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, per the meeting agenda. It arrives amid a string of costly legal outcomes for the district involving students with disabilities. A federal court approved a $9.95 million settlement against CCSD — the largest in district history — over a teacher's physical abuse of a nonverbal autistic elementary student between 2016 and 2018 at Harley Harmon Elementary School, according to the law firm ASWT.

CCSD is also facing a class-action lawsuit, allowed to proceed by a federal judge in September 2025, brought by 12 families alleging systemic failures to provide required services to special education students, as reported by KSNV NBC News 3 Las Vegas. Separately, the district finalized a settlement in July with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada to reform special education evaluations and reading support after facing more than 20 administrative due-process complaints. Hoodline previously reported on a similar lawsuit filed in February alleging a veteran special education teacher physically abused a nonverbal 5-year-old autistic girl while school officials failed to intervene.

The Molasky Junior High case also follows other recent examples of state and legal scrutiny of CCSD discipline practices. In August, the Nevada State Board of Education voted to revoke the teaching license of a former Clark County substitute after a separate physical altercation with a student, a licensing action that operates under NRS 391.330 independently of any criminal case. And in July, a federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against CCSD over a school officer's conduct, adding to ongoing questions about how the district's police department handles internal investigations.