# School Board Caught Violating the Civil Rights of Disabled Children and Teachers



## mark handler (Jun 25, 2010)

Written by John Schutt

Thursday, 03 June 2010 10:35 - Last Updated

Suzanne Thomas, a Las Vegas advocate for persons with disabilities, filed a comprehensive complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleging that the school board deliberately trampled the civil rights of disabled children and teachers. Parents who have children with autism see their child’s rights violated daily. Evidence submitted with the complaint consists of plans of nine schools recently or currently being remodeled and photographs and allegations written in a formal legal writing method that seems to indicate great knowledge and proof on the part of Ms. Thomas.

Ms. Thomas is the former Regional Representative for the Nevada

Governor’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. She was with the committee from 1975 to 2001, at which time the committee was disbanded. She has been an expert witness in numerous legal cases, has mentored architects for architectural barriers compliance, and has been on TV and radio and in films on the subject of Americans with Disability Act (ADA). She is a former and/or current board member on 10 local advisory boards and has received numerous recognition awards. Thomas is a well-known children’s advocate and speaks frequently to public entities such as the Clark County Commission, College of Southern Nevada and Housing Authority on the subject of non-discrimination of persons with disabilities.

In 1975 the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was created by the United States Congress to help put people with disabilities back to work and become taxpayers instead of wards of the state. Since the ADA is a federal law, the Clark County School Board must comply. As a predecessor to the ADA, the 504 Federal Law also required government buildings to provide access to those with disabilities. The complaint to DOJ shows that the Clark County School Board under the leadership of President Terri Janison and past School Board President Mary Beth Scow (current Clark County Commission candidate) has failed to comply with both of these regulations that are still in place and have remained so since the mid 1970s.

During the 1970s most government buildings were not accessible to persons needing to use a walker or wheelchair, or who were blind, for example. The laws required government entities such as the Clark County School District (CCSD) to do an analysis of their facilities and find out what needed to be fixed. They were then required to create a “Transition Plan” describing the work needing to be done. Then they were to incorporate the repairs into the ongoing work and budget of the district. The Transition Plan is required by law to be available for public inspection at any time so that a parent of a child with a disability can find which schools have been corrected and will be ADA accessible.

Contact with Ms. Thomas was made and she stated, “After a few weeks of telephone tag and the runaround, I was told that Dave Broxterman was in charge of the problem. He told me that they had everything fixed and so there was no Transition Plan. At first, I was told that it was in some computer program. So I asked to have a printout or use the computer.

Then he told me that the work was all corrected. It’s a time-tested runaround routine. Of course you can see from driving by any school at 30 miles an hour that they are regularly violating the law.” Suzanne Thomas and her team reported in the list of violations that of 30 schools that were visited to verify compliance, none was in compliance. Part of ADA and 504 is the requirement that restrooms be big enough for people in wheelchairs. It gives requirements for how steep ramps can be, for door widths and for eliminating stairs that people with walkers cannot use. It requires certain door handles. It sets heights for handrails, sinks, drinking fountains and cabinets. There are also requirements for Braille signage for people who do not see well.

Had the Clark County School Board done its job in seeing that federal law was followed, fixing these problems since 1975 would have been insignificant in the scheme of things. The district was remodeling these buildings with money from a 1988 bond election and again using $5 billion in bonds from the 1998 bond vote. So many bonds, so little compliance. If they had followed the Transition Plan and done the work in the course of the many ongoing remodeling jobs, the cost would have been miniscule.

Unfortunately, now much of the expense involved will be due to the need to fix past botched remodeling jobs already done by the CCSD facilities department.

“I have spoken to the head of CCSD Facilities Paul Gerner and his predecessors many times to no avail,” said Thomas. Because the district has intentionally set up a program for ignoring the civil rights of the children,

the complaint alleges that the trustees “continually and intentionally disregarded ADA and 504.” This may bring a higher degree of penalty should the complaint come to trial. The reality of the school district going to trial to defend seems unlikely, given the weight of evidence included in the complaint and the way that the ADA law is written. Not many entities accused of ADA violations win in court because it is too hard to go against the physical evidence. “It is as plain as the nose on your face. I once called Gerner’ s predecessor and told him not to let the CCSD TV shows pan around school buildings unless he wanted the public to see what a bad job they were doing at becoming ADA compliant,” said Thomas.

How could this go on so long without the public knowing anything about it?


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## mark handler (Jun 25, 2010)

Well, we looked at the school board meeting minutes to see if any mention of ADA complaints by the public could be found. The school board minutes had been reported so vaguely that people reading them would never be able

to understand what any complaint was, and evidence shown delivered to the trustees on video or audio recordings are not posted to the Web site where the minutes are posted. The school board meetings are not televised so you

would have to look at dozens of videos on a tiny window on your computer to find that information. It could take a year for a researcher to come upon that information that way. Therefore, you would have to be at every school

board meeting to know; if you can sit through that many dog-and-pony shows, then you would deserve an award.

Reporters who regularly attend the school board meetings told us that Ken Small, candidate for the School Board Seat in District F, has made multiple presentations to the trustees regarding the illegal activities of the facilities department. Small had prominently mentioned ADA violations to the school board on a regular basis over the last three years. He has also made presentations to the CCSD Bond Oversight Committee regarding the same situation. When contacted for his input on the situation, Small admitted that he brought this situation to

Suzanne Thomas’ attention during 2005. “Since that time I posted reports about the department that does this," Small said. “Head of Facilities, Paul Gerner, repeatedly stuck up for them when I reported their shenanigans to the Board. The trustees call that department 'modernization.' I eventually started to call it the 'Department of Substandard Schools for Poor and Minority Children.'(DSSPMC)"

We asked Small about the complaint's assertion that "CCSD intentionally circumnavigates the process required by Section 35.403 by not contracting with design professionals who insist on correcting non-compliant issues…." Small said that he personally reported that Gerner and his staff were hiring architects as subconsultants to engineers in order to avoid using the architects on the qualified architects list. Normally, architects are hired by the clients, who then hire engineers as their subconsultants.

Small told the Tribune staff, “I randomly selected 19 recent projects run by the DSSPMC; all failed to comply with ADA.

Many did absolutely nothing working toward compliance. It’s disgraceful. At one school board meeting, I stood up before the trustees and showed them a picture of a sign telling disabled kids to use the toilet down the hall. If that sign had said blacks, Hispanics or someone else -- instead of disabled persons -- there would have been a different reaction. But because disabled children can’t stand up for themselves, the trustees sat there stonefaced and ignored it.”

Ken Small told the Tribune that he heard Jeff Weiler, CFO of the school district, imply at a school board meeting in 2009 that the illegal activities that Small reported were in the past. Small said, “Because of the Trustees' parliamentary rules, they were able to disallow rebuttal. But at my next opportunity to speak, I told them that this and other illegal activities that the trustees apparently sanction with a wink are still ongoing.”

At times the school board makes the assertion that it cannot comply with regulations because of the cost issues. The legal and documentary evidence appears to indicate that the district

has wasted a huge amount of construction funds badly needed for fixing the many dilapidated schools. Making a bathroom a little larger when the facilities managers have already gutted and redone the room would add little if any cost. Now taxpayers’ money will have to go to redoing work that was already done wrong.

In looking at the intention of failing to comply where little cost was involved, we looked at the signage newly installed on several new schools. The signage provided by the contractors who built the schools was in compliance with the law. However, after contractors left the building, the facilities staff installed additional signage itself and installed it illegally. “The cost of adding Braille to their signage should have been incurred in the 1970s,” said Suzanne Thomas. “This has been required a long time.”

An observation at newer and older schools shows brand new signage apparently installed by CCSD in recent months still has no Braille. Most of the cost of small signs is in the labor to get the sign and hang it, not in the sign itself.

Why does the district fail to comply with federal regulations, like those requiring Braille? Building inspectors will not pass private projects without this. When asked, Thomas said, “Beats me.

Any sign company has them.”

History of Problems


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## mark handler (Jun 25, 2010)

Complaints about the bad management of the school system bythe school board didn’t start in 2008 when Nevada was first ranked 50th in the nation for education, thanks to CCSD.

Ten years ago the trustees, some of whom are still on the Board, decided to cut back on public input, yet we still re-elected them. Even worse, we elected them to more powerfulpositions like the City Council and County Commission. They purchased a copywritten system of parliamentary procedures called “Policy Governance” (PG). The current Board has used this system to cut back on complainers and to make it impossible to stand up at a public meeting to refute something inaccurate. The PG system was not designed for such a purpose, but an inept school board with an agenda has put it to use to shut down citizens with legitimate issues. The system is designed to have the Board make policy decisions that are then implemented by the superintendent of schools. The purpose of PG is to leave the school board out of the day-to-day operations of the school system. While this may not be a problem for onlookers, the further use of it is. The trustees decided to vote for PG that forbids Board members conversing with the public.

We wouldn’t want our elected officials answering to the voters, now would we?

When you watch Oscar Goodman speak to his audience at the City Council hearings, you will never

see that happen at a school board hearing. Trustees President Janison and Vice President Edwards, who typically run the meetings, will tell the audience that it is “illegal” for them to respond to audience members; and yes, we willingly give them that power and walk away. That is a technically true “falsehood” because the trustees themselves made that rule.

Stop re-electing these people! If you would never leave them in charge of your business, why put them in charge of three billion in taxpayer dollars?

Why did Thomas go to the Department of Justice?

Parents who go to the School Board find that they are typically ignored. Many are told to leave the room to meet with staff who then send them on their way with an insincere promise that they will look into it. Parents who think that they can turn to the attorney general will find that it is the AG who is tasked with defending the school district. Therefore, the district is pretty much immune to discipline unless someone goes to the Department of Justice with enforcement of the ADA. Parents who can afford it can get their own attorney.

Congress tasked DOJ with enforcement of this law. So, DOJ is a good source of help. Anyone can go to the DOJ Web site and file a complaint against the district. Thomas suggested that anyone thinking that is too late should consider that discrimination practiced in 1979 is still ongoing and it is important to do something about it now. www.ada.gov/enforce.htm is the Web site for complaints and includes samples of what is required and is now allowed.

Along the way of investigating this story, we have been made aware of many other problems, such as Policy Governance® at the School Board. Among the allegations listed are bid-rigging architects, refusing to let properly licensed contractors bid, encouraging contractors not properly licensed to sign contracts to bid and signing contracts with those contractors, and the school district facilities staff’s personal immunity from punishment for breaking the law. Some of these stories have been covered by other news agencies such as Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI), and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, yet many have not. Expect the Tribune to be looking into these allegations.

What is the next step?

When asked what she wants from the district, Thomas replied, “Follow the law. I feel that heads should roll over this. The trustees and the facilities staff knew that this was going on and failed the most helpless among us.”

When asked the same question, Ken Small was less charitable. “On earth, I’d love to see a RICO investigation. A group this large conspiring to violate the law should be investigated for organized crime.

After that, they all deserve an 'A' ticket to hell. What could be more despicable than acting against these children?”


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## Gene Boecker (Jun 25, 2010)

I don't think there'll be a RICO investigation but you can bet that the DoJ will have people in place soon to set up their own investigation in regard to ADA.

Thanks for the posting, Mark!


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## peach (Jun 25, 2010)

There are lots of disabilities that aren't specifically addressed in ADA (or any state legislation)..

I have an autistic son.. AND a hearing impaired son..

Once you accept the fact that ADA and pretty much all accessibility issues apply primarily to the mobility impaired.. Mobility is the focus.. everything else is pretty well disregarded.. (yup.. been there), you need to accept that the list of "other disabilities" is never and will never.. be addressed satisfactorily...

god bless them.. the wheel chair crowd has the voice... "for the disabled"


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## Gene Boecker (Jun 28, 2010)

FYI, peach.

There will be new rules on sound levels in school facilities to help the hearing (and learning - like I was) impaired.

Yeh, too often people focus only on th mobility issues since they tend to take up space.  There are lots of other disabilities to pay attention to.

Bless you.


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## RJJ (Jun 28, 2010)

I agree with both peach and gene on this. Hopefully, vision,hearing and other disibilites get a better review going forward. They are just as real as the mobility issues.


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## mtlogcabin (Jun 28, 2010)

All parties involed here should be ashamed. The school board for their refusal to address the issues and Suzanne Thomas for letting it go on for 5 years. she only needed one student to file the complaint to get the DOJ to look into the actions of the school board and their failure to comply with ADA



> When contacted for his input on the situation, Small admitted that he brought this situation to Suzanne Thomas’ attention during 2005.


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## mtlogcabin (Jun 28, 2010)

All parties involed here should be ashamed. The school board for their refusal to address the issues and Suzanne Thomas for letting it go on for 5 years. she only needed one student to file the complaint to get the DOJ to look into the actions of the school board and their failure to comply with ADA



> When contacted for his input on the situation, Small admitted that he brought this situation to Suzanne Thomas’ attention during 2005.


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