A Nevada judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday to halt the continuation of what has been deemed a teachers’ strike. Under Nevada law, strikes by public sector employees are prohibited.
Clark County School District, which encompasses Las Vegas, recently announced the closure of eight schools within seven days due to a surge in teacher sick leave reports.
The matter was heard on Wednesday after the school district requested a temporary restraining order to quell an alleged sickout that resulted in a significant increase in staff absences.
The school district has claimed in a lawsuit that these “unprecedented” mass absences constitute a strike by Clark County Education Association (CCEA) educators in direct violation of state law.
“While mass absences by CCEA educators affected one school per day through most of the week, their actions on September 8 caused two school closures,” the complaint stated. “It defies logic to suggest that these mass absences constitute anything but the type of concerted, pretextual absences that NRS 288.074(2) plainly defines as a strike.”
The court has agreed.
“What’s happening here is very clearly a strike that needs to be enjoined,” Nevada Judge Crystal Eller said during a hearing on Wednesday.
She maintained that it would be “preposterous” to argue otherwise and made her decision based on a substantial amount of circumstantial evidence. Judge Eller then requested that attorneys representing the district draft a new injunction to officially terminate the strike, awaiting her signature.
This legal battle is happening against the backdrop of an ongoing contract dispute between the district and the union. In late August, two teachers were detained and led away in handcuffs during a school board meeting that was disrupted when dozens of teachers started yelling and rallying, demanding improved compensation and calling for the removal of the superintendent.
Officials from the Las Vegas school district recently urged the judge to intervene and put an end to what they assert is a coordinated union effort involving teacher absences during a contentious contract negotiation. This campaign led to school closures and disruptions in classrooms.
According to court documents, the Clark County School District alleged that the CCEA’s licensed educators have used a “targeted and coordinated rolling-sickout strike” to force the closure of three Clark County schools and severely disrupt operations in two others between Sept. 1 and Sept. 8.
The Clark County Education Association represents over 18,000 educators within the Clark County School District, which ranks as the nation’s fifth largest.
Since Sept. 1, unanticipated staff shortages have resulted in seven schools canceling classes for the day, while two others were forced to combine classes, according to the Clark County School District. The district’s motion seeking an emergency court order indicated that one school experienced an 87 percent teacher absence rate on the same day.
The district argued in court documents that the mass absences led to one school being affected each day for most of the week, culminating in two school closures on Sept. 8. Four additional schools closed on Tuesday, followed by another closure on Wednesday, reported Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV.
The district firmly contended in court documents that it “defies logic” to claim that these mass absences don’t define a strike under Nevada law.
“The legislature outlawed this 50 years ago and the defendants in this case have clearly helped their members effect this strike,” lawyers for the district said at the hearing on Wednesday.
The district had urged the court to intervene and terminate the alleged strike, expressing concerns that the situation “will only continue” if not addressed.
In court, an attorney representing the union argued that there is no evidence to support claims that the union organized teachers to take illegitimate sick leave.
“I don’t disagree that something is happening in the world,” the union’s lawyer said. “I disagree that my clients bear responsibility for it.”
The union has been actively advocating for contract improvements and ensuring that every classroom has a licensed teacher, as indicated in social media posts.
In response to last week’s absences, the union stated that it had no knowledge of them and denied any association with the actions in a statement to the Nevada Independent.
These tense contract negotiations within the nation’s fifth-largest school district are unfolding during a period when labor unions nationwide are challenging the treatment of workers, from the ongoing writers’ strike in Hollywood and auto production disputes in Detroit to issues within the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Las Vegas Strip.
