LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A former Eldorado High School teacher is suing the Clark County School District, former superintendent Dr. Jesus Jara, and Eldorado principal Christina Brockett after a 2022 classroom attack.
The incident happened in April 2022.
RELATED LINK: Full coverage: Attack at Eldorado High School
According to the lawsuit, the teacher, who is only identified as Sade Doe, said her mandatory office hours when students could meet with her was from 1:19 p.m. to 1:56 p.m. That's when she normally leaves for the day.
On April 7, 2022, she said she heard a knock on her classroom door around 1:25 p.m. and that one of her English class students, later identified as Jonathan Eluterio Martinez Garcia, asked to speak with her about missing assignments. She put a stopper in the door so it would stay open and turned around to go to her desk.
That's when she claims Garcia started to strangle her with a "cordlike object". She remembered asking him "What did I do" thinking he would stop choking her. But instead, she lost consciousness. She was in and out of consciousness for the next hour and a half while Garcia continued attacking her.
In the suit, the teacher said she asked Garcia what she did and that he told her "she was his favorite teacher [but] a part of him also hated. teachers, all teachers must die, and he needed to get revenge on all teachers."
During the attack, Garcia also threw a metal bookshelf on top her and tried cutting her wrist. The suit states he "began stomping on it in hopes that the Plaintiff's left arm would get cut off because he asked 'Is it off yet?'"
At one point, the teacher said she tried to play dead but when Garcia kicked her leg, she flinched and he continued attacking her asking "how she was not dead yet."
Eventually, Garcia left the classroom and the teacher was found by a custodian.
According to the lawsuit, the teacher claims CCSD was negligent for several reasons.
She said the Eldorado job was her first teaching job out of college and she was told that it was "a good working environment and was never told anything negative about the school or about any security or safety concerns." The suit states that's despite CCSD reporting multiple violent incidents across the district, even before she was hired, and referenced Channel 13's prior reporting on incidents in 2018 and what can be done to prevent violence in CCSD schools.
WATCH NOW: 13 Investigates: School security concerns were first exposed in 2018
School security concerns now called "emergency" were first exposed in 2018- She scheduled a conference with Garcia's parents on March 24, 2022 to discuss his "academic progress and behavior concerns." However, his family did not attend and it was marked as a "no show". She said CCSD was aware of his behavioral issues and dangerous and/or violent tendencies and didn't warn her.
- Eldorado had a policy that once school was over, students had to leave the building and had to re-enter through the main building doors to get a hall pass to attend office hours. However, Garcia did not have one on the day of the attack.
- Although CCSD required her to be available for students, the suit states "no CCSD employee, security, or police was around to see Mr. Garcia roaming the halls after school hours and brutally attacking Plaintiff in her classroom for over an hour and a half, no one heard Plaintiff's screams and cries for help during the attack, and no one was monitoring surveillance cameras."
- In March 2022, a colleague told the teacher about a panic button in classrooms. The suit states the teacher had never heard of the panic button before, who it would connect to, or the hours it was active. She said she had always thought the panic button was an intercom connecting her classroom to the main office. At one point, before the attack, a student had pushed the button in her classroom but nothing happened and no one appeared.
Following the attack, Eldorado High School received $26 million in security upgrades.
As for Garcia, he pleaded guilty to multiple charges in April 2023. Last June, he was sentenced to serve 16 to 40 years in prison.
