CCEA files court petition over alleged Jara social media post

The teachers union filed a petition Thursday asking a court to force the Clark County School District to release public records related to a social media post under Superintendent Jesus Jara’s name that likened a female union leader to a “mistress.”

The Clark County Education Association and its president, Marie Neisess, requested a court order in District Court against the school district, Jara and Chief Communications Officer Tod Story.

The teachers union, which represents more than 16,000 licensed employees, said in a Friday statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the lawsuit speaks for itself.

“If Superintendent Jara didn’t use a fake Twitter account to disparage CCEA’s President, who is also an employee of CCSD, then it is a claim that he can easily prove is untrue,” the union wrote. “What we have here is a Superintendent who proclaims to be an advocate of transparency but when it comes to himself, he is refusing to provide basic information.”

The school district hasn’t responded to previous Review-Journal requests for comment about the social media post. Officials said Friday that the district does not comment on pending litigation.

Court documents allege Story maintains or maintained an account on the social media platform X with the username “@SuptJara CCSD” and display name “Dr. Jesus F. Jara.”

A screenshot of a post that appeared to originate from the account was circulating in November on X.

Jara, who has been superintendent since 2018, has faced criticism during his tenure, which intensified during teacher contract negotiations last year.

The school district declared an impasse in bargaining in September and an arbitrator approved an agreement last month.

The union, as well as Nevada Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager and Nevada Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, called last year for Jara’s resignation.

In a reply to a post about Yeager calling for Jara’s resignation, which included a comment about Yeager’s leadership, an account under Jara’s name wrote: “What leadership? Corruption and bought by Crooked JV and his mistress Neisses?”

The post appears to be referring to the union’s Executive Director John Vellardita and President Neisess.

After the post was made, the account was deactivated, according to the petition.

The petition alleges that Jara and/or Story — “not hackers” — made the post in question and have also used a burner account Luis @Luis54681428, “to defame CCEA leadership and others.”

On Dec. 4, the union sent the school district and Jara litigation hold demand letters, which demanded that all data from the two accounts be preserved and archived.

On Dec. 7, the union submitted a public records request to the school district seeking: “All records and information relating to all X/Twitter accounts Dr. Jesus F. Jara used in the course and scope of his employment at the Clark County School District…”

Court documents allege the district didn’t respond within five business days as required by the Nevada Public Records Act.

The district responded Dec. 18 saying that: “CCSD does not concede that the X/Twitter accounts requested are used in the course and scope of employment. Further, your request is ambiguous with regard to what ‘records’ and ‘information’ you are requesting,” according to court documents.

The union alleges the district made no effort to assist them in focusing the request, as required under state law.

The union sent additional correspondence to the district Dec. 29 detailing the reasons that the district’s response was “ deficient” and failed to comply with the public records law, but didn’t receive a response.

The burner account was deactivated around Jan. 3, but the associated data is recoverable through at least Feb. 3, according to the petition.

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