EXCLUSIVE: Silenced CCSD Mom Sits Down With The Globe

For three hours, Candra Evans, mother of a 15 year-old daughter in Clark County School district, sat down with The Globe for her first in-person interview. After being initially silenced during her public comments by the CCSD Board of Trustees, the video of her exchange, posted by Libs of Tik Tok, went viral, garnering over 2 million views and national media attention.

As reported by The Globe, the video shows a visibly distraught Evans at the Board of Trustees meeting as she attempts to read the sexually graphic and vulgar assignment given to her 15 year old daughter by her school teacher. Her microphone was abruptly cut off.

A mom in @ClarkCountySch reads from a graphic assignment her daughter was required to do. Her mic then gets cut off because it’s inappropriate for a public discussion.

Adults can’t handle hearing this content yet they readily give it to kids in school. How does it make sense? pic.twitter.com/GFP1bGhNlg

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 17, 2022

Reaction to the video was swift, with some activists questioning if the monologue was an actual assignment.

We are waiting to be provided proof that this was a real assignment in a CCSD public school. Until we see that we will assume it's not.

— Vicki Kreidel M.Ed (@vix_kreidel) May 17, 2022

Others, like Trustee Danielle Ford, publicly and falsely accused Evans of being “used” by the parental advocacy group, Power 2 Parent, to “push their agenda.”

Per the law, the board does not have to allow public comment that disrupts the meeting.

I agree this parent deserves a response. It sounds like it was being addressed.

I believe this mother was used by Power to Parent to disrupt the meeting & push their agenda… PERIOD ⚫️

— Danielle Ford | Clark County School Board (@TrusteeFord) May 17, 2022

The assignment, as posted on CANVAS—an online classroom tool used by teachers, students and parents—asked students to write a monologue and have another student perform the monologue in front of the class.

The submitted monologues would then be reviewed by the teacher, prior to reenactment. After the teacher reviewed and edited the student’s submissions, Evans’ daughter had to act out the following monologue in front of the class. According to Evans, this is not only inappropriate reading for a 15 year-old, but could violate Nevada law.

“I don’t love you. It’s not you, it’s just (looks down) your d**k. I don’t like your d**k or any d**k in that case. I cheated Joe. We were long distance and I’m in college and me and this girl, my roommate, started having some drinks and you know, I thought it was a one time thing but then we started going out for coffee, and started sleeping in the same bed. I never thought it would get this far but God, it was like fireworks, and made me realize that with you it was always like a pencil sharpener that keeps getting jammed. I’ve tried to look at it from all different perspectives, but the truth is, I’m a f*****g lesbian. I’ll never love you or any man, or any f*****g d**k. I hope you find a nice straight girl because that’s not me, and I’m tired of pretending that it is.”

The Globe felt it was important for Evans to share her full story and experience due to the fact that she was not only silenced by the Board of Trustees, but Trustee Ford and other community activists have chosen to attack her character, rather than acknowledge her grievances. This is Candra Evans’ story.

“I am not a political person, Evans told The Globe. “In fact, I don’t even know enough about politics to really engage in a conversation and I had no political motivation when coming to the school board meeting.” When I asked Evans if she ever contacted her Trustee, she did not know her Trustee and had not contacted her.

“I had never gone to a board meeting before, but I needed to because I wanted to protect my daughter and this was the first assignment that caused concern. I don’t want other teachers pulled into this. I don’t want to cause the school any harm. I want to protect the school, students and teachers, so I am keeping that information private. The school is amazing and so are other teachers. I don’t want what one teacher did to cause any other teacher to be mistreated or the schools reputation tarnished because of what one teacher has done,” Evans said.

The Globe:  How many meetings did you have with the school prior to this board meeting?

Three meetings prior to the pubic meeting. Power 2 Parent helped facilitate the last one because in the prior two meetings, I felt as though I was being ignored and nothing was being done after promises at those meetings were made. So after I was basically ignored, I started searching for resources on line, and happened to find Power 2 Parent and they immediately got back to me and helped me navigate the system and set up a meeting with the Assistant Superintendent.

When and how did you learn of your daughter’s assignment?

Sometime before Spring Break she was given the assignment.  The assignment had come and gone and my daughter didn’t tell me about it. About four weeks ago, the school sent home a packet of papers that I need to sign for daughter’s return to school in the Fall. I filled those out and stuck them in her binder. The assignment fell out of the binder. So, I opened it up and I read it and I immediately thought she had a stalker. Who gave this to her?  Did she write this for school?  Is this a prank?  I was just shocked by what I had read. So, I texted my daughter and I asked her. I didn’t believe her when she told me it was an assignment. But, she told me that the students had to write a monologue and then they threw it in a pile and picked someone else’s monologue, and that meant the teacher knew about it. (emphasis added).

My daughter told me that the teacher “had us do this” and that “the teacher said “it was OK.” But I said, “No, this is not fine and this is not ok.” So, I drove immediately to the school and went to the front desk and asked the student who was working at the front desk, to speak to an adult. I also called my husband who is serving overseas in the military and he was upset. I asked my husband to be on Signal for a video chat with the Vice Principal. The Vice Principal also seemed upset and disturbed. I remember in conversation that we were both wondering that maybe there was a substitute teacher in the class that day who didn’t read it. The Vice Principal promised to get to the bottom of it.

My daughter was a fan of the teacher. I had no reason to think anything bad was going on. I thought that there must be a reasonable explanation. Our daughter trusted her teacher and our daughter thought we were making a big deal out of nothing. This also was disturbing to me.

We asked the Vice Principal to meet with our daughter and explain to her that this wasn’t okay. The Vice Principal agreed and told us that he was going to take this seriously. We felt calmer. We thought he was going to handle it. I also told him that I would like to have a female present at this meeting with my daughter because it would make her feel at ease–either his assistant or another female staff member. He promised to do that and call me that day. He did not call me that day. That was a Friday.

When my daughter got home from school, she said she only met with Vice Principal and that a woman was not present. She said that he told her that anytime she felt uncomfortable, she could say “No” and offered his support and help. He wanted to focus on whether she felt comfortable with the assignment and that made me even angrier. She is 15, it doesn’t matter. You don’t do these things to a kid. I thought that was an interesting twist. I didn’t see that coming.

I sent an email to him on Monday. “Since I didn’t hear from you, I would like to request another meeting with the principal, counselor and teacher.” He set up the meeting for that week. My 29 year-old son came with for moral support. The principal did not show. All the others were there.  Everything was civil. Every meeting has been civil except for the school board meeting. They told me more than once that I handled it better than they would have.

The teacher started talking first and explained what the assignment was about. The monologue was a random selection. I asked her: “Did you get a chance to read the monologue?” She said she did and added, “As a matter of fact, I worked with all the students first.” After it was written, the students and the teacher had to work on editing. The teacher said that the monologue was a lot worse! The students wrote a second draft based on the teachers input. (emphasis added). My mouth dropped.

What shocked you the most?

There have been a lot of comments about the language used and maybe kids do hear things that are a lot worse, but my entire family thought it was disturbing and inappropriate for a minor, and for most people. The pencil sharpener was the most disturbing, this is what changes the assignment from filthy, disgusting, and inappropriate to pornographic. I think a lot of people do not realize that this is our main issue.

What was the purpose of the assignment?

I don’t know. The teacher said a lot of words, but I still don’t know. I asked her if she understood the pencil sharpener line, and she said she did. I didn’t know what the point would be anymore to talk to a teacher that believes it was okay for my daughter to read pornography to a class. 

The meeting started to take a down turn. All three of them kept saying that my daughter chose to do it and that my daughter was okay with it. I replied, “She is only 15 and you aren’t going to blame her. It is my job and your job to make sure that obscene and filthy material is not put in front of her.”  

My son spoke for the first time stating that my daughter is not of legal age to have sex. She doesn’t have consent. “A consent form was not sent home to my mom and she would not have been okay with it.” After that, they started to back track and ended up agreeing with him and said that it was “our responsibility and not your daughters.” The counselor did not agree with the assignment. The teacher didn’t offer an apology. I went there hoping that I would hear something, but I didn’t get an apology or a reason for the assignment. Instead, I got excuses that my daughter was aware and approved of it. I told them I was not pleased. “I am sorry to hear that” was the only apology I was given.

What did you do next?

That afternoon, I called a few numbers. I called the main CCSD number. I left a message with the secretary and left a message for the Regional Superintendent– but didn’t hear back that whole day. I called and left messages twice on two different days. That evening I was just thinking “what do I do now?” I didn’t understand why I didn’t hear back from anyone. I had a feeling that even if they called me back, I would be met with the same thing as I had experienced before. So, I started looking up pornography laws and trying to educate myself and where I could go from here. This took hours. I found an article written by Power 2 Parent. Their mission is to help parents. I found a number and I talked to Erin Phillips. I sent her the assignment and she offered to help me. She helped facilitate a meeting with the Assistant Superintendent. That conversation– I couldn’t have asked for it to go any better. As this was my third meeting in the district, and for the first time, he genuinely seemed upset and disturbed by what he read. He said it was “one of the worst assignments he had seen during his career.” He apologized and promised to fix it.

I also went to the school to make a criminal complaint against the teacher.  The school’s police officer came and got me and I told her that a teacher gave pornographic material to my daughter and made her perform it and I wanted to file a report. The police officer told me that if my daughter had just said “no”, then we might have more of a case against the teacher and that the police could do more. It seemed the police officer was aware of the situation. She promised to check on the investigation, but implied there was nothing criminal about what happened. So, towards the end, I asked if we filed a complaint. The officer said “No, I have to interview your daughter”. I replied that I needed to be there. “Well, make sure you don’t coach your daughter. We can tell if parents coach their kids,” the officer said. I was taken aback. I didn’t know it was going to go like this. 

When I met with the Assistant Superintendent again, I was asked if I filed a criminal complaint, but I told him what happened. He then promised me three things:

One, the Assistant Superintendent had to follow procedure. He couldn’t tell me what happened with or to the teacher. Two, he was going to provide materials for counseling or whatever daughter needed. And three, he was going to reach out to the local area CCSD police command. 

After that, I got a call from the officer’s supervisor and it didn’t go well. She was short with me. I would try to answer her questions and explain but she cut me short and said she had to get to another meeting. You know, I love the police and support teachers, I respect public service so much, but I was really shocked by this experience with the school police. So, I gave up. It didn’t go like I had hoped. 

So the Board meeting was just a few days later? Looking back, are you happy you went?

Between Tuesday and Thursday, and the good meeting with the Assistant  Superintendent, I waffled back and forth. I wasn’t going to go to the Board meeting until the phone call from the supervising police officer. I felt so bad and she rattled me so much. I said I had to go because something isn’t right.  

As I started to read the assignment, I started choking up and thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it. So I wanted my daughter-in-law to read it, but the Board say “no”, I had to read it myself. When I started reading it, people from the audience started yelling at me and yelling things. Before that, there were some people that security had to take out. 

I was shocked that the Board stopped me. I was simply reading and repeating what my daughter had to act out. I was just taken by surprise. After they cut me off, I asked to read the rest of what I wanted to say. They gave me my time back and I was able to finish my statement but not the reading of the assignment.

Some people in the audience were yelling out that I was lying and what I was saying was just propaganda. The Board told me not to engage with the audience.

I am glad I went after seeing the reactions and hearing that people are proud of me for getting up there.

(Evans begins to get upset and teary-eyed and asks for a minute to compose herself).

Evans continued: “I’m just a momma bear who wants to protect her daughter. People can be cruel and kids can be cruel. I showed my daughter Sheriff Joe Lombardo’s statement. We really appreciated that statement. It showed her that I was doing the right thing and that her teacher was in the wrong. The assignment was not okay.”

How has your life been since the board meeting?  How is your daughter doing? 

Not too long after I finished my comments and sat down at the Board meeting, another supervisor in the district came to me in the crowd and asked to meet with me in the hallway. She was gracious and apologetic. She said she was sorry for all that my family has been through. She had been apprised and she offered to help. She said she was concerned and asked about my daughter. 

I thought something good came out of this. I honestly thought it was going to be resolved. 

But then, last Friday, after the Board meeting, my daughter was upset and emotional after school. She said, “Mom something happened at school.” I immediately pulled the car over.  She said the principal came and got out of her class and spoke with her in the hallway. He told her that he is sorry for everything she has been through and he understands why I had done what I had done and that I had every right to do so. He reminded her not to talk to anyone else about it. He then said that he wanted her to meet with the teacher because she wanted to apologize to my daughter. He then brought my daughter into the room with the teacher and left her alone with the teacher. There are details from this meeting that I will not go into. But, what the teacher did in that meeting was upsetting and traumatized my daughter even more.

I was so upset by this that I wrote another letter to the Trustees telling them that the family is distraught and devastated. I withdrew my initial request for leniency. I am done with the teacher. There is no justification for what happened in that meeting she had with my daughter.

Only one trustee has reached out to me. Another has accused me of being used.

The principal emailed me at some point asking for another meeting with the Regional Superintendent.  I replied “yes” and asked if he would assign an aide or another teacher or an administrator to go into the class and make sure that my daughter is safe in that class. “I don’t think my daughter is safe anymore” I told him. This will be her last week of school. He asked for me to explain why my daughter isn’t safe. “The teacher said the meeting went great”, he said. We discussed what happened in the “apology meeting” and that is not what happened at all. He was shocked. I again asked that the teacher not approach my daughter.  

The next meeting with with the principal and Regional Superintendent went well. They said they were doing everything they can to make sure that daughter feels safe and swore to keep promises. They were working behind the scenes.

Out of anyone who came after me, I would never expect it to be a Trustee. I expected the Trustees to be outraged and instead I get silenced and then accused of being used.

One more thing, my son showed me a video from a Board of Trustees meeting back in June 2019 and it’s Danielle Ford saying the D-word on camera. It was profane and graphic, while sitting in a public meeting, and they didn’t cut her off. 

Up until this point, I have tried to keep my name out of it. I didn’t go to the press or do TV interviews. I am just trying to protect my daughter. This isn’t about me. I wanted to meet with you because I did read the social media posts on Twitter and I felt good and that I did the right thing. I had no idea what I did was a big deal. I didn’t even know they were filming. What happened has struck a nerve and it has is now “viral.” I didn’t really know what that meant until I looked on Twitter and I thought “Oh Dear.” I ran away and then went back and read the comments and most of them were very inspiring and made me feel better. But, I then saw some comments and so many questions, and everyone seems to want to know the rest of the story, so hopefully this answers a lot of questions that people have.

***End of Interview***

On an additional note, Trustee Ford has crowned herself the Queen of Irony in the following tweet, posted days before Evans was silenced by the Board.

👢🔥 pic.twitter.com/BcGzWkxfQs

— Danielle Ford | Clark County School Board (@TrusteeFord) May 14, 2022

Since the interview this past Saturday afternoon, Evans contacted The Globe on Monday and said she has finally agreed to go on camera for an interview. She will be sitting down with Newsmax TV. She has obviously found some “big ass f*cking boots…so others will know that they don’t have to live in the shadow of abuse.”