The school district where student Jonathan Lewis was 'beaten to death' by
a mob of teens has faced a slew of lawsuits and allegations claiming it
has ignored or covered up bullying - with locals telling DailyMail.com the
issue is 'out of control.'

Clark County School District has been hit with at least four lawsuits in
recent years claiming it failed its legal duty to investigate and report
bullying incidents, alongside disturbing claims from the district's own
police department that it has directly suppressed allegations from
children and parents.

This year alone, the district has faced two lawsuits alleging it failed to
investigate serious allegations from students, including those levied at
former teacher and convicted child abuser Jonathan Cronin.

In another complaint, a former teacher claimed she and her child were
intimidated into halting their bullying allegations. A local resident also
branded the CCSD leadership 'mob-like' to DailyMail.com.

The issue has left residents furious following the harrowing fatal beating
of Lewis, 17, this month, as they say it is only the tip of the iceberg
after years of complaints about CCSD's lack of action.

Lewis' death has also reminded residents of the CCSD's reaction to the
2013 suicide of Haillee Lamberth, 13, when it sparked outrage by blaming
her death on the child instead of the bullying she endured at school.

In a statement to DailyMail.com the CCSD dubbed the incidents 'completely
unrelated.'

Lewis' grieving father claimed to the Review Journal the gang who beat his
son were involved in another violent incident the week before without
punishment, saying: 'This is not a one-off, no. We know that there was
another incident the Tuesday before that with these exact kids.'

Eight students have been arrested in connection to the deadly attack.

Dontral Beaver, 16, Gianni Robinson, 17, Damien Hernandez, 17, and
Treavion Randolph, 16, were all charged with murder and appeared in a Las
Vegas court last week.

Four other teens have been charged, but not named, as their cases remain
in juvenile court.

The judge ordered the defendants to continue to be held without bail at
the Clark County Detention Center.

They are set to appear in court again on Tuesday.

Daniel Martinez, public defender representing Randolph, told the Las Vegas
Review Journal that the expects his client to plead not guilty on Tuesday.

Lt. Jason Johansson of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said all
the people involved were students of Rancho High School.

Locals told DailyMail.com there is a systematic failure from inside the
district to deal with bullying early, allowing it to become a widespread
problem fueled by 'fear and anxiety.'

Claims that a lack of positive action to stop bullying escalating into
such incidents as Lewis' fatal beating this month has seen some furious
Nevada residents recall the CCSD's response to Lamberth's 2013 suicide.

The district sparked fury by equating her actions with 'murder' to pass
the blame away from the bullying she endured at school, before seeking to
release Lamberth's suicide note against her family's wishes, to support
claims she was already planning to kill herself.

Lamberth's parents Jason and Jennifer Lambeth sued the school district in
a wrongful death lawsuit the following year, where they claimed the
school's failure to tell them about her bullying stopped them from
preventing the tragedy.

The 13-year-old's suicide note appeared to directly call out the school
where she suffered harrowing abuse, saying: 'I only ask that you tell my
school I killed myself.'

In a federal lawsuit launched in 2020, the Clark County School District
(CCSD) was accused of not only failing its legal duty to investigate a
bullying incident in one of its schools, but also retaliating and
intimidating the victim into silence.

Former teacher Michelle Cox filed a federal complaint claiming that when
she found out her child was being bullied and reported it to the district
they ignored it and never filed a report,' according to 8NewsNow.

She claimed the bullying was so severe that one student told her child:
'When I am older, I'm going to murder somebody, somebody like you.'

The lawsuit alleges that the school's lead faculty intimidated the child
into not making further complaints, with Cox's attorney Jason Bach saying:
'She was retaliated against and accused of wrongdoing for essentially
raising her voice and questioning the principal.'

The status of her lawsuit is not clear.

The lawsuit is just one of a number of similar cases and allegations,
which has led Nevada State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro to
call for CCSD superintendent Dr Jesus Jara to resign.

'Dr. Jara's administration is a failure, and under any reasonable
circumstances, he should resign or be terminated,' she said, a week after
State House Speaker Steve Yeager also called for his resignation as the
community 'no longer trusts' him.

According to schools statistics tracker Niche, students in the district
have a math proficiency rate of just 20 percent, and a reading proficiency
rate of 38 percent.

The same year as Cox's lawsuit in 2020, the district paid $1.8 million to
settle two lawsuits alleging special needs students were abused by their
teacher, Kasey Glass, with the faculty again accused of taking no action
when it was reported, according to 3News.

In February 2023, the Clark County School District Police Department
directly accused the school district of trying to cover up separate
allegations against another special education teacher, according to
8NewsNow.

While that teacher who faced accusations was never charged with any
wrongdoing, the school district's police department said their
investigation found suspicious 'failings' from administrators.

In particular, the district was required by law to file an 'averse
restraint form' after a teacher was accused of using physical force
against a child, however police found no report was ever filed by CCSD,
according to KLAS Las Vegas.

Importantly, many states allocate school district funding based on daily
attendance rates. This means that in districts that handle bullying
poorly, leading to more absences, they may end up receiving less funding
that would go to improving conditions at the school.

The district faced similar allegations of systematic cover-ups in an April
2023 federal lawsuit claiming convicted child sex offender and former
teacher Jonathan Cronin targeted students, while the CCSD allegedly failed
to take the allegations seriously.

It was claimed that the CCSD failed to take students' allegations against
the teacher seriously, failed to investigate the claims, and didn't
discipline Cronin to deter him from committing further acts of sexual
abuse.

Cronin was given a suspended sentence up to 96 months in May 2020.

Many have reacted with fury at seeing the moments that allegedly led to
Lewis' death, with the beating at the hands of the mob captured on
sickening footage.

Eight students at the high school are now facing murder charges. However,
the two week aftermath of Lewis' death has seen numerous Clark County
residents and former students call out the district for its bullying
issues.

One parent who had two children bullied by their teachers at two separate
schools in the district, who asked to remain anonymous, told DailyMail.com
that the district's approach to suppressing bullying claims is 'mob-like.'

'Every school (in the district) is worse than the next,' she said, noting
she would often make visits to schools for her job. 'It's terrifying.'

She said when her daughter was targeted by a teacher, he would stand her
in front of the class and taunt her as she struggled through math
equations. After complaining, she claims that 'nobody did anything about
it.'

When the mom threatened to sue and told the school they would 'never be
rid' of her sitting in class and observing the teacher until her daughter
graduates, the school offered to graduate her daughter a year early for a
$700 fee.

Her autistic younger son, who also suffered from learning disabilities,
would allegedly be tormented by teachers who would 'rip up his papers in
front of him', and humiliate him.

Like others, she claimed that the reports were never filed over any
incidents, and when she took it to Superintendent Jara, 'that's where
everything just brushed under the rug.'

She added that Rancho High School, where Lewis was 'beaten to death' this
month, is 'one of the worst schools' in the area where 'beatings and
violence are daily' in the area of the city.

Former Las Vegas City Council candidate Richard Carreon, 43, who has lived
in the district since 2014 and campaigns for education reforms, told
DailyMail.com that CCSD has a 'basic disregard for the necessities
inherent to education.'