Lyon teacher cleared in assault

YERINGTON - No charges will be filed against a Lyon County teacher accused of assaulting a student, District Attorney Leon Aberasturi said Thursday.

Aberasturi said after reviewing a report which contained photographs showing a bruised 12-year-old Dylan Coates and statements from Dylan, teacher Richard Mesna and a teacher's aide, he was left with no other conclusion than to decline charging Mesna with assault.

On March 31, the boy's mother Stacie Filler filed a complaint with the Lyon County Sheriff's Department alleging Mesna pushed her son against a desk to wake him. When Dylan reacted by swinging a binder at the teacher and calling him a name, Mesna grabbed the boy by his collar, lifted him from his seat, slammed him into a wall and threw him out of the classroom, Filler said.

Dylan, a seventh-grader from Silver Stage Middle School, was serving in-school suspension in Mesna's high school classroom.

"The report clearly indicates that the juvenile was not in compliance with the in-school suspension program rules. While sleeping may not have constituted a violation (of law), the use of vile and obscene language and the throwing of the binder would fall under the statute," Aberasturi said. In a memorandum denying the complaint, he said Nevada law prohibits the disturbance of school "through the use of vile or indecent language." Nevada law also entitles a teacher to use "reasonable and necessary force," to quell a disturbance that threatens physical injury to any person or the destruction or property.

"Force was necessary to quell the disturbance as the juvenile threw a binder and appeared to be losing self-control as indicated by calling the teacher (names)," he said.

Aberasturi went on to explain bruising on the boys neck from the pressure of his shirt collar did not meet the definition of substantial bodily harm.

"The existence of abrasions from the shirt pulling against the neck and the bruises caused by the teacher grabbing the juvenile does not legally or logically prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the force was excessive," he said. "Courts have recognized that punishment is not necessarily excessive because a student suffered pain or bruising.

"Based upon the evidence submitted, a conviction could not be secured in this matter."

Contact F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.