ACLU files 2 motions to dismiss in CCSD teacher case

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has filed two motions seeking to dismiss a case against a Las Vegas middle school teacher who faces a misdemeanor charge after being removed from a School Board meeting over the summer.

Aramis Bacallao, an English language arts teacher at Becker Middle School in northwest Las Vegas, is charged with disturbing the peace.

During a brief court hearing Tuesday — which coincided with the first day of classes in the Clark County School District after winter break — Bacallao was in attendance with ACLU attorneys Christopher Peterson and Jacob Smith.

The organization filed motions to dismiss on Dec. 18, according to online court records.

“Teachers have First Amendment rights and should not be handcuffed and criminally charged for exercising those rights,” Smith said in a statement Tuesday to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Bacallao is among two teachers who were cited after refusing to leave an Aug. 24 school board meeting where Clark County Education Association members were protesting amid contentious collective bargaining. He was handcuffed and removed by police from the meeting room.

Bacallao pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in November. He was eligible for a pretrial diversion program but declined the offer.

The Clark County School District did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The Clark County Education Association, a teachers union that represents more than 16,000 licensed employees, said in a statement Tuesday to the Review-Journal: “CCEA teachers have consistently acted on their First Amendment rights. The efforts to silence Aramis Bacallao’s voice and deny him his rights is a gross injustice to a frontline educator.”

The case was originally scheduled for a bench trial Tuesday, but it was jointly called off by both parties, Justice of the Peace Diana Sullivan said in court.

An attorney for the state said prosecutors won’t file any opposition to a motion to dismiss for lack of notice.

Sullivan said she will review the motion and “make sure that it’s legally sound.”

A hearing on the motion is scheduled for 9 a.m. Jan. 10.

Bacallao doesn’t need to be present for the hearing, Sullivan said in response to a question from his attorney.

“It’s just going to be my decision” on the motion — not negotiations, she said.

Sullivan said that if she denies the motion, they will set up a briefing schedule at that time on the other motion to dismiss.

In a motion to dismiss for lack of notice, attorneys wrote: “Although a criminal misdemeanor citation may be used as a criminal complaint, the citation must still provide adequate notice to the person being charged of the essential facts that satisfy the crime the person is being charged with.”

The motion states that a citation issued by the Clark County School District Police Department is the only charging document filed against Bacallao.

The citation doesn’t allege any facts that satisfy requirements under state law, including “who the alleged victim of the offense may be or what specific actions taken by Mr. Bacallao constituted a ‘disturbance,’” according to the notice.

In a motion to dismiss for overbreadth, attorneys wrote that the law Bacallao was cited under is “unconstitutionally overbroad in that it clearly limits protected First Amendment activity.”

A trial for the second teacher who was removed from the August school board meeting — Kristan Nigro, a kindergarten teacher at Schorr Elementary School and a teachers union executive board member — is scheduled for Feb. 14.

She also is being represented by the ACLU of Nevada. Nigro pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in November.

In September, the district declared an impasse in collective bargaining after 11 negotiation sessions that began in late March with the Clark County Education Association.

Union members held protests over the summer, including at two school board meetings in August.

Last month, an arbitrator approved an agreement between the school district and teachers union.

The new contract includes provisions such as a salary increase — 10 percent in the first year and 8 percent in the second — and additional pay for special education and Title I teachers.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com. Follow @julieswootton on X.