Teacher charged with hitting autistic boy
Aide told police 5-year-old was struck with stick
A Las Vegas elementary school teacher arrested last week is accused of striking a young autistic student with a stick, according to a report by Clark County School District police.
Melody Carter, 58, was arrested Friday and charged with felony child abuse, neglect or endangerment. School police had opened an investigation into the teacher at Harmon Elementary School, near Nellis Boulevard and Hacienda Avenue, in early May.
A substitute teacher’s aide in Carter’s room told police she saw the teacher hit a nonverbal 5-yearold about five times after telling the child to put on his shoes, according to the report. The aide reported hearing the stick cut through the air as Carter swung it, the report said.
When the stick broke, Carter said, “I have more of those,” the aide told officers. She also told police she saw red marks above the boy’s ankles later in the day.
The boy would curl into the fetal position and cover his legs when he saw Carter approach him with the stick, the aide told police.
A different teaching assistant told police she saw Carter “tapping” a student with the pointer the day of the incident, but she was not hitting the boy hard. The assistant changed the boy later that day and did not report seeing any marks or bruises on him. She also said she has never had to stop Carter from being physical with students.
Investigators found a bruise on the boy’s legs consistent with being hit
TEACHER
tion with input from a select group of stakeholders since last year, but they didn’t release the proposal to the general public until June 6.
Since then the amount of federal land being sought for development has grown from an estimated 38,636 acres to the current 44,573, and the county has released several conceptual maps that appear to contradict one another.
A map handed out by county officials at Tuesday’s meeting was different from one, apparently produced in error, that was still posted on the county’s website later in the day.
Several audience members complained about the lack of specific information and time for public input prior to the vote.
“It appears that just a small handful of developers and environmental groups were consulted in the development of this proposal,” said Patrick Donnelly, Nevada director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. “It has all the hallmarks of a smoky backroom deal.”
But several conservation groups that worked with the county expressed support for the finished product, which calls on Congress to designate almost 83,000 acres of new wilderness and nine new “areas of critical environmental concern” on almost 293,000 acres across Clark County.
By protecting desert tortoises and other listed species in those nine areas, county officials hope to eventually unlock an equal amount of federal land for development.
‘A terrible precedent’
Donnelly called that a “total subversion of the Endangered Species Act.”
“This would set a terrible precedent, where cities and counties across the country would run to Congress every time they want to develop on endangered species’ habitat,” he said. “Scientists and wildlife professionals, not politicians, should determine what’s best for the tortoise.”
County Air Quality Director Marci Henson, who headed up the drafting of the resolution, called it a county and local city “wish list” of land-related changes that require approval from Congress. Other provisions would add 41,000 acres to the Moapa River Indian Reservation, transfer to local control any federal land where schools, parks, flood control basins and other permanent public facilities have been built, and use fee money collected at Red Rock Canyon to reimburse county police and fire services for emergency calls at the conservation area.
“To us, this is the very first step in the process of letting the congressional delegation know what we want in a bill,” she said.
Henson said county officials will work closely with lawmakers as they write the bill and bring the draft legislation back to the commission for another vote once it’s finished.
County officials said the process could take several years, with additional opportunities for public input along the way.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @Refriedbrean on Twitter.