NSHE board hires lawyer to investigate staffer’s ‘child speak’ comment
Nevada’s higher education board has hired an independent attorney to investigate an incident in which its chief of staff and legal counsel berated a regent at a public meeting this month for engaging in what he labeled “child speak.”
Dean Gould, a licensed attorney who’s chief of staff and special counsel to the Board of Regents, remains employed by the Nevada System of Higher Education, system spokesman Francis McCabe said in a Monday email to the Review-Journal.
“We cannot discuss further due to an ongoing personnel inquiry,” he said.
NSHE board chairman Mark Doubrava said in a statement that he couldn’t comment about incidents during the July 23 and Aug. 7 board meetings in which Gould publicly rebuked the regent because it’s “a private and confidential personnel matter.”
But he said the board is taking those events and related issues seriously, and has hired Los Angeles-based attorney Apalla Chopra from O’Melveny & Myers LLP to provide “advice and counsel” to the board.
Chopra is an expert in employment law and Title IX, and has regularly represented institutions of higher education, Doubrava said. “Our process will be guided by the principle of fairness as we serve NSHE’s overall mission to serve our community of students, staff, and faculty members.”
The incident involving Gould stemmed from an agenda item during an Aug. 7 meeting, where regents decided in a split vote to change board policy to comply with new U.S. Department of Education sexual misconduct regulations.
Regent Lisa Levine, who was appointed to the board in June by Gov. Steve Sisolak to fill a vacancy, told her fellow board members her vote would be a strong “no.” She said regents who vote “yes” stand on the side of rapists and violent criminals, an assertion a few board members said they were offended by.
Levine told the board she had state Attorney General Aaron Ford on the phone to discuss the issue, but the board chairman told her she was acting out of turn as she continued to talk.
Gould interrupted Levine and asked her to mute her line during the virtual meeting. When she didn’t, Gould said he didn’t want to “man speak,” but would have to if she continued to “child speak.”
Wow, @nevadaregents! Way to shut down the dissenting woman’s voice. Nevada women stand united with @Lisa_C_Levine
PS: Women are not children 🙋🏼♀️#NSHE #WhiteMalePrivilege pic.twitter.com/8ok2BouwA8— LeAn Shelton (@LeAnShelton_LLC) August 7, 2020
An eight-second video clip of the exchange circulated quickly on Twitter and a handful of elected officials, including Sisolak and Ford, weighed in, criticizing Gould for what they say was unacceptable conduct that was patronizing toward Levine.
In a statement released after the Aug. 7 board meeting, Gould said his reaction was in response to a July 23 meeting, where he was attempting to prevent an open meeting law violation when Levine accused him of “mansplaining.”
“I found this comment to be unprofessional and embarrassing and is not an appropriate way for an employer to speak to an employee,” Gould said in the statement.
Levine was “disrupting the defined procedural process” during the Aug. 7 meeting while the board chairman was trying to take a roll call vote, Gould added in the statement. “At that time, I became frustrated at her lack of decorum. In retrospect, I should not have stooped to her level of acrimony.”
During an Aug. 21 board meeting, Doubrava said in response to a question from a fellow regent that he had excused Gould from attending the meeting, but declined further comment.
Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.
