A lawsuit filed in federal court accuses the Clark County School District of failing to protect a 13-year-old former student from a junior high school math teacher accused of sexual abuse and grooming.
The girl and her mother said in a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Nevada that Brian Conway “cultivated an inappropriate and manipulative relationship” with the girl from August 2025 to January of this year while she attended Lawrence Junior High School in Las Vegas, where Conway taught.
The girl and her mother are identified in the complaint using initials, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal does not typically identify victims in sexual misconduct cases without their consent.
The filing of Thursday’s complaint follows Conway’s February arrest, after police said he received child sexual abuse materials from a 13-year-old student. According to the complaint, Conway was arrested after the girl’s family moved to another state and her mother discovered explicit messages and photographs on the girl’s phone, prompting the woman to alert police.
Conway was indicted on Feb. 19 and faces charges including use of a minor under the age of 14 in producing child sexual abuse material, luring children or mentally ill persons with the use of technology with the intent to engage in sexual conduct, possession of visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child and lewdness with a child under the age of 14, according to Clark County District Court records.
David Kiebler, an attorney representing the girl and her mother, said in a Monday phone interview his clients hope their lawsuit will lead to policy changes at CCSD.
“The fixes they want are simple,” Kiebler said. “When something like this is alleged to have happened, call the parents, train the staff to recognize this kind of behavior, watch the cameras and investigate when something like this is happening.”
The lawsuit names CCSD, Superintendent Jhone Ebert, Lawrence Junior High Principal Allen Yee and Conway as defendants.
Conway, 49, remains jailed at the Clark County Detention Center, online records show. Conway declined a jailhouse interview request, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesperson said on Monday.
A CCSD spokesperson said in a statement that the district does not comment on pending litigation. The spokesperson said Conway was fired in February, and Yee previously testified that Conway started working at the district July 31, 2025, according to District Court records.
Teacher ‘cultivated’ inappropriate, manipulative relationship
Beginning last August, “Conway cultivated an inappropriate and manipulative relationship with Plaintiff by inviting her to spend lunch periods and time after school in his classroom, ostensibly for tutoring,” the complaint said.
The girl, according to the lawsuit, was frequently late to class following lunch due to spending lunch time with Conway. Conway “repeatedly” wrote the girl notes to excuse her tardiness.
The lawsuit says Conway used Instagram and the encrypted messaging application Signal to communicate with the girl and had access to her phone’s current location. Conway also saved the girl’s contact in his phone as “Mi Amor,” the complaint said, which means “My Love” in Spanish.
“Conway specifically directed the girl to use Signal for privacy,” the complaint said. “The communications rapidly escalated to sexually explicit content, with Conway and Plaintiff exchanging nude photographs and sexually explicit videos.”
Conway expressed romantic and sexual feelings toward the girl, calling her pet names and giving her gifts that included a gold necklace and a hoodie, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit claims Conway engaged in escalating physical sexual contact with the girl while on campus, including a time when he touched her on top of and underneath her clothing and kissed her.
The relationship between the girl and Conway also drew attention from at least one school official, according to the complaint.
“Conway admitted to Plaintiff that the school’s Vice Principal had warned him to stop spending so much time alone with Plaintiff, and that he could get in trouble,” the complaint said.
According to the complaint, the vice principal’s warning demonstrated “actual, on-campus awareness of the inappropriate relationship,” between the girl and Conway but the girl’s parents were never notified.
CCSD employees also failed to monitor, review or act upon surveillance footage that would have shown Conway’s improper and escalating contact with the girl, according to the complaint.
Suit: CCSD knew about ‘systemic patterns of abuse’
The suit claims that CCSD had knowledge of a “pervasive systemic pattern of sexual abuse of students” by district employees spanning several years.
The complaint noted 2023 testimony from Clark County School District Police officer Matthew Caldwell, who told the Nevada Legislature that between 13 and 15 CCSD staff are arrested each year for suspected child sexual exploitation.
The filing also cited several examples in recent years of CCSD employees being arrested, charged or convicted related to sexual misconduct, and the approval of settlements in court cases stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct by district staff.
Despite knowledge of “systemic patterns of sexual abuse by CCSD employees” Ebert deliberately chose not to implement adequate policies or take corrective action to protect students, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that CCSD’s “longstanding practice of failing to protect students from harm inflicted by teachers,” deprived the girl of her rights guaranteed under the 14th Amendment.
The complaint also accuses the district of negligence and Conway of battery, which the lawsuit says left the girl with physical, mental and emotional harm, including depression and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder. According to the filing, the girl has needed inpatient and outpatient mental health treatment, which has caused “substantial” disruptions to her schooling and life.
The defendants’ failure to protect the girl, combined with “deliberate indifference” to a known pattern of employee sexual misconduct, demonstrates a “reckless disregard” for the emotional well-being of students under their care, the complaint states.
The girl and her mother are seeking more than $75,000 in general and compensatory damages, as well as punitive damages against Ebert, Yee and Conway and legal fees.
Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Casey_Harrison1 on X.
