CCSD loses appeal in case of embarrassing yearbook photo

The Nevada Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling Wednesday in favor of a former student who sued the Clark County School District over an embarrassing 2017 high school yearbook photo.

Three judges — Michael Gibbons, Bonnie Bulla and Deborah Westbrook — issued the decision after hearing oral arguments in late September.

Justin Smith, who was pictured in the yearbook photo, filed a complaint against the school district in Clark County District Court in April 2019 alleging negligence.

In January 2022, a judge ruled that Smith should receive $6,000 in damages. The school district filed a notice of appeal shortly thereafter.

On Friday, Smith said, “I feel kind of relieved that I won, of course.”

The school district dragged out the case and it tries to nullify whatever it’s negligent in, he said. “CCSD is a bully.”

The school district wasn’t immediately available to comment Friday afternoon.

The district judge’s findings were supported by “substantial evidence” and the school district had a “duty of care” to Smith, according to the Nevada Court of Appeals’ decision.

“This duty was breached when the school district published the embarrassing photograph of Smith in the official high school yearbook,” the judges wrote.

The case was about a 2017 photo in a Durango High School yearbook that showed Smith running track. At the time, Smith attended Beacon Academy of Nevada, a public charter school, but was on Durango’s track team.

“The problem with the photo is that there appears to be a relatively lengthy protuberance, coming directly out of the middle of the Plaintiff’s crotch area, that cannot be ignored,” a district judge wrote in a 2022 finding of facts document.

During oral arguments last month, an attorney for the school district argued that the trial judge didn’t apply the correct negligence standard. She also called it an “innocuous” yearbook photo.

But in the Wednesday decision, judges wrote: “Smith, and many of his fellow students, believed this protuberance to be Smith’s exposed genitals.”

Smith felt “embarrassed and humiliated” after the yearbook was released, was bullied by classmates and received counseling, the judges wrote.

Smith, 24, still lives in Las Vegas. He said he’s studying accounting and works in the nonprofit sector.

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