Lawsuit against CCSD, convicted teacher aims to protect future victims

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016 | 8:15 p.m.

The Clark County School District and a former music teacher convicted on charges of molesting at least one student were sued in federal court last week, documents show.

The class-action complaint, filed last Friday by Las Vegas attorneys Robert Eglet and Aaron Ford, is part of an effort to identify more victims of Jeremiah Mazo, 54, the pair told reporters Thursday.

The lawyers say that the lawsuit aims to hold the district and its staff accountable and that school policies to prevent abuse haven't improved.

North Las Vegas police arrested Mazo at Hayden Elementary School, 150 Rome Road, near North Fifth Street and East Centennial Parkway, on April 24. He was accused of touching an 8-year-old girl multiple times through the school year, city police said.

It was later discovered that Mazo had been previously arrested and faced similar allegations in 2008 while teaching at Simmons Elementary School, near Tropical Way and Coleman Street, according to the complaint.

Those charges were dropped following a North Las Vegas police investigation, and Mazo continued to teach without the district warning parents and students about his history, Eglet said.

The district was “on notice” and did not independently investigate the teacher, Eglet said. Also, the administration failed to show students how to confidentially report possible abuse.

Mazo was convicted last year on three counts of attempted lewdness with a minor under 14. He is serving up to 60 years in prison.

Before the charges were reduced from 32 felony counts, prosecutors had alleged Mazo had fondled at least eight elementary-age students.

Citing Mazo’s six-year history at Hayden, Eglet said that figure of possible victims could climb to 30 or higher. And the lawsuit could provide an opportunity for those victims to speak up.

Eglet said the failure in this case undermines the district's two-pronged focus of providing quality education and ensuring the safety of its students.

After the 2008 allegations, Eglet said, the district could have taken steps to protect future victims, such as providing Mazo a teacher's aide and not leaving him alone with students.

The complaint was filed on behalf of two families.

In the 2015 case, the complaint shows that in one instance, Mazo asked a girl to sit behind his desk and abused her after class was dismissed. That girl, according to the complaint, says “she does not want to have any children because she fears someone will do the same thing to her children.”

Similar allegations were made by another girl who had said Mazo told her she would be transferred to another school if she said anything, the complaint said.

The girl would be upset the days she had class with him and after his 2015 arrest, “she was afraid to go to school because she thought other students would blame her for having Mazo arrested.”

The purpose of the lawsuit is so “this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Eglet said.