51°F
weather icon Clear

Victim sues CCSD over 2017 knife attack by classmate

A former Clark High School student who was stabbed by a classmate in 2017 when she was 16 years old and seven months pregnant is suing the Clark County School District.

Keily Martinez Mejia, who is now 18, filed a complaint July 14 in District Court alleging the school district was negligent for failing to provide a safe learning environment and that it failed to ensure that weapons weren’t brought to school despite potentially dangerous conditions.

The lawsuit also names her attacker, Dayshara Paschal-Campos, and Dayshara’s parent Kimberly Campos.

No hearings have yet been scheduled on the lawsuit, according to online court records. CCSD and Mejia’s attorney, Kevin Sprenz, didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Paschal-Campos was 14 when she attacked Mejia with a knife on Oct. 16, 2017, according to police records. She was arrested and charged with three felony counts after a petition to transfer the case to Juvenile Court was denied, according to online court records.

She was found guilty of battery with use of a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm and burglary in December 2017, according to online court records. She was found not guilty on a felony count of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon the following year.

Paschal-Campos was sentenced to 60 to 180 months in prison on the battery conviction and to 16 to 72 months for the burglary conviction.

Mejia, who was seven months pregnant at the time, was attacked in a Clark High restroom in the early afternoon by a mask-wearing Paschal-Campos, the complaint alleges.

Mejia suffered 10 stab wounds: one to the inside of her right palm, four to the back of her right hand, one of the left side of her forehead, two on the back of her neck, one on the back of her head and one on the right side of her neck. She was taken to a hospital via ambulance.

Paschal-Campos told law enforcement she was being bullied by people and “the attack was a warning to people to stop bullying her,” according to the complaint.

Mejia needed medical treatment for injuries “sustained to body, limbs, organs and nervous systems, all or some of which conditions may be permanent and disabling,” according to court documents.

The complaint lists damages in excess of $15,000, and alleges Campos and CCSD are jointly liable for damages up to $10,000.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.

THE LATEST