Recently, there have been various questions posed regarding teacher rights as they pertain to elementary students committing criminal offenses. Teachers feel flustered that offenses committed by elementary aged students are not being addressed and I have been asked what Nevada juvenile law provides. This month’s article will address this issue.
Nevada Revised Statutes dealing with juvenile delinquency do NOT place a minimum age requirement for a “child” to be considered a delinquent. The law only requires that the child be under the age of 18 at the time the offense was committed (NRS 62A.030). It should be noted that “offense,” as used in this article, is any act that would be considered a crime if committed by an adult, except for certain violent acts, i.e. murder, sexual assault.
Pursuant to NRS 62C.100 a Juvenile Probation Officer is responsible for determining whether a complaint should be filed against a child. The complainant can have the matter reviewed by the District Attorney’s office (NRS 62C.100). In researching this topic I spoke with a Juvenile Probation Officer who disclosed that there are children as young as eight (8) in the system and that a child was actually on supervision for assault on a teacher. There is no question that if a crime is committed against the teacher personally, the teacher has the right to file a complaint. Significantly, Article 12-8 of the Negotiated Agreement provides that administration “shall assist and cooperate with an assaulted employee in making his/her criminal complaint against either the adult or juvenile offender.”
The question that then arises is, “who do I report the offense to?” School police has jurisdiction over offenses that occur on school grounds (NRS 391.275). Thus, school police can be called to report an offense of an elementary school student. Inevitably, the question always arises, “do I have to notify my principal?” Pursuant to Article 12-3 a teacher is required to report it immediately.
The decision to file a complaint against the student is not the principal’s, it is the teacher’s who the offense was committed against.
Look for an article on the District’s policies and regulations regarding student discipline in next month’s issue.