LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A lawyer said there is a districtwide failure in properly training special needs teachers across the Clark County School District.

Gregg Hubley represents Daijeana Rogers a mother who claimed a CCSD teacher abused her special needs child.

“It goes back to this lack of transparency and frankly it reeks of an attempt to conceal what happened,” Hubley said.

Rogers said she started noticing changes in her daughter Saniye’s behavior after she started at Kirk Adams Elementary School.

Then a few weeks later, Rogers’s suspicions were confirmed.

“She’s non-verbal, she can’t say anything. She’s not able to tell me anything, so by me saying her behavior is off, I just couldn’t figure out what the issue was,” Rogers said.

In December of 2022, Rogers received a report from school police that gave her some answers. It detailed how a special needs teacher reportedly physically abused her 5-year-old daughter on several occasions.

After one of the incidents, investigators said a teacher’s aide stated that since this incident occurred. Saniye’s demeanor had changed and she had been crying every day and wouldn’t smile. She also wears leg braces.

“We have her teacher who picks up her chair and dumps her out of the chair onto the floor because she’s not happy that Saniye is not getting up quickly enough,” Hubley added.

School police concluded in the report that “this case should be handled administratively, as the reported actions of the teacher do not rise to the level of a criminal act.”

“I was really confused by it because I thought physical punishment was a criminal act,” Rogers stated.

Child Protective Services also found the allegations unsubstantiated. Yet, Hubley saw several problems.

Under state law, teachers are mandatory reporters, which means if they witness any physical abuse of a child, they are required to report it within 24 hours.

Hubley said that didn’t happen in this case.

“Saniye was observed being abused by this teacher in mid-November. It was reported to the principal in early December and Daijeana as the mother was not informed until four or five days later,” Hubley told 8 News Now.

A school is required under regulation to notify a parent within 24 hours if physical restraint was used on their child.

Hubley added that the teacher accused of abusing Saniye still teaches at Kirk Adams Elementary, while Saniye was moved to another school.

Hubley and Rogers have yet to file a lawsuit seeking to settle the matter out of court.

CCSD told 8 News Now can not comment on student issues due to privacy laws.