CCSD renewed contract with teacher accused of ‘disturbing’ conduct
A Las Vegas therapist reported a teacher for having a fetish for “female bodily fluids” that he photographed, asking students to call him “daddy” and other questionable actions, but the school district renewed his employment contract weeks after the concerns were raised, a Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation has found.
“I realize that the information I have presented do not prove actual physical, nor illegal involvement with a student,” the therapist wrote. “However, the cumulative power of these points point a very disturbing, potentially dangerous, picture of this individual.”
The man’s name was redacted in the copy of the Public Concern Form provided by the Clark County School District, but the unredacted copy of that complaint provided to the Review-Journal identified the teacher as Thuan Luu, 41, of Henderson. The complaint was sent to the district March 16.
Luu declined to comment, directing the Review-Journal to his lawyer, Shawanna Johnson, who called the allegations “patently and absolutely false.” Johnson cited Luu’s ongoing divorce as her reason for declining to comment.
“This is a domestic and a legal matter, and I will not comment further at this time,” Johnson wrote in a message to the Review-Journal on July 7.
Teacher for eight years
The school district declined to say when Luu was hired, whether the district was investigating the allegations made in the complaint or whether Luu was still employed.
According to Johnson: “There is no investigation or contact of any kind from any agency because there’s nothing to investigate.”
Luu was teaching art at Veterans Tribute Career and Technical Academy this school year, according to the complaint and a message from the school district.
The state license website indicates that he taught at Twitchell Elementary School from 2015 through 2018 and moved to the career and technical academy in fall 2018.
Internal emails show that Luu renewed his employment contract on April 27, and the confirmation email was sent to the school’s principal, Jason Ginoza. Calls and emails to Ginoza were not returned.
The complaint to the school district was filled out by a marriage and family therapist, whose name was redacted from the copy provided by the school. The therapist only agreed to an interview with the Review-Journal if her name was not published because she feared clients would think she was violating ethical confidentiality. She said she sent the complaint because she is a mandated reporter of people threatening to harm themselves or others.
She wrote in her complaint that she only provided details on behaviors for which she had documented proof through photos, videos and handwritten letters. She mailed the complaint in a manila folder postmarked March 17, according to a copy of the envelope sent to the Review-Journal.
Questionable behavior in class
Clark County District Court records show that Luu’s wife, Jung Min, filed for divorce in November.
In the complaint, the therapist claims the woman who reported Luu to her had overheard “countless” conversations between Luu and his students in which he gave advice about drug use, including his personal experience, street names, prices and effects.
Students refer to him as “daddy” or “dad” in comments on his Instagram posts.
In the complaint, the therapist wrote that there was a video taken by Luu’s secret camera hidden in his glasses that recorded students sitting outside, and that Luu took photos of menstrual blood on a student’s chair.
The therapist cited video and audio recordings from Luu’s dash camera video that captured Luu discussing a fetish, which included purchasing “female body fluids.”
The complaint accused Luu of beating his wife in 2018, and stated that a journal entry from the woman read, “he bound my wrist to my ankles with a piece of clothing, punched my face and choked me, threaten (sic) me to kill me and himself with a knife.”
Luu was arrested in May 2016 on a domestic battery charge involving Min, who was his girlfriend of five years at the time.
Police records indicate that Min and Luu struck each other. No case was filed against Min, and the case against Luu was dropped a month later, according to court records.
The therapist’s complaint urged the district to place the teacher on leave for a psychological evaluation.
In response to the complaint, the therapist received a letter from the school district that said the concerns had been sent to the school’s principal, Ginoza. The therapist was told to expect a written reply by April 3, but the reply received was a one-sentence letter from Ginoza.
“This letter is to inform you that your public concern dated March 16, 2023, has been received,” the reply read.
The therapist told the Review-Journal she never heard from the school district again regarding the complaint.
Terri Miller, president of Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, or SESAME, said it’s incumbent on the school district to investigate the complaint.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.