Parental advisory: Explicit content? Candra Evans’ Story.

Candra Evans’ daughter, “Jessica” is a sophomore at a local Las Vegas high school. She loves her school and is a good student. One morning Candra was going through some school papers Jessica had left behind and was surprised to find a monologue typed on a piece of paper that had fallen out of her binder. The content was completely inappropriate and pornographic. Candra texted a picture to Jessica and asked what this was. She told her mother that her teacher had assigned students in her class to write monologues. First drafts were written, turned in, reviewed and edited by the teacher, Mrs. H. Then the monologues were handed out randomly to the students. The students were instructed to memorize the assigned monologue and act it out in front of the class. This is the actual assignment posted on Canvas.

​Jessica memorized the monologue and performed it in front of her class. She told her mother that if Mrs. H. thought it was ok, then it was fine for her to present it to the class. Candra did not agree.  The monologue read like this:“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.”

Candra took the copy of the monologue and drove to the school and met with the assistant principal, Mr. H. Candra’s husband, who is currently deployed with the U.S. military, attended the meeting via Signal. In the meeting Mr. H. agreed that the content of the monologue should never have been used for an assignment and that he would talk to the teacher and call the Evans’ back that day to report. Candra requested that he have his female assistant be present when he spoke to Jessica and he agreed. Candra never received a call from the assistant principal and Jessica said that when they talked there was no female present. The Evans’ could see by the lack of response that this situation was going to get swept under the rug.
Candra emailed and requested another meeting, this time with the teacher, the counselor, and Mr. H., the assistant principal. That meeting went poorly. Candra wanted to give this teacher the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she didn’t know what the assignment said. Maybe there was a substitute that day and this monologue got past her. Instead Mrs. H. indicated that she had in fact reviewed the monologue with the student who wrote it and eliminated the “worst parts.” This was very surprising and disappointing to the Evans’ because her explanation confirmed the seriousness of her extremely poor judgment. Candra gave Mrs. H. every opportunity to apologize; to admit that she should have had better judgment when she was reviewing the student monologues. Mrs. H. was Jessica’s favorite teacher and she trusted her teacher’s judgment when it was time to perform the monologue. At the time, Jessica really felt that if Mrs. H. thought the assignment was ok then it probably was even though Jessica didn’t fully understand the meaning of what she was performing. Mrs. H. stood by her assignment and also said that if Jessica was uncomfortable, “she should have said no”. The counselor and assistant principal echoed her sentiment until Candra told them that it is HER job and THEIR job to ensure that obscene material did not end up in front of her daughter. As a parent she should have been notified that this was happening and given her consent for Jessica to participate. Jessica is a minor and should not be expected to judge the appropriateness of an assignment by her adult teacher.

Candra left the meeting that day feeling upset and overwhelmed. She reached out to the region superintendent’s office, called and left messages twice on two different days. While awaiting a call back, she searched the internet for parental advocacy. Candra found Power2Parent and reached out to President Erin Phillips, and shared her story. Erin was able to arrange a meeting with a school associate superintendent, and went with Candra as a parent advocate to that meeting. Candra also wanted to testify to the board of trustees to get her story on the record. Deborah Earl, VP of Power2Parent, accompanied Candra to that board meeting and walked her through the process of testifying because she had never attended or testified at a public meeting before. Here is a video of how she was treated at the board meeting:
Candra’s Testimony

​Candra was not allowed to read the content of the assignment because it was inappropriate. She was chided for using vulgar language and Trustee Morales asked for decorum. Candra asked the obvious question, “How do you think my daughter felt reciting this to her class and yet I’m not allowed to read it here?” Trustees allowed Candra to finish her testimony but was not allowed to share the content of the assignment in her testimony. Trustee Danielle Ford later slandered her on Twitter.
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We are so proud of Candra for bravely standing up to elected officials, CCSD administration and this teacher to advocate for her child. Her only agenda is to protect Jessica and she has been vilified for speaking up.

As parents we cannot be silenced by the people who are entrusted with our children. Educators are accountable to parents. Government schools are funded by taxpayers and they exist for families, not the other way around. As parents, we have a serious responsibility to protect the innocence of children and raise them the way we see fit. This is why we work to protect our rights and advocate for our children.
Power2Parent exists to ensure that parents are heard and that their rights are respected and protected. We will continue to work to protect the rights of ALL parents and we will continue to work with Candra until this situation is resolved to her satisfaction.

This story is important because it speaks to a national trend of students in schools being assigned obscene material in class and how parents are treated when they object. The video of Candra’s testimony from the school board meeting was ultimately picked up from Libs of TikTok, an account with 1.2M followers. The tweet went viral with over 20K retweets and nearly 60K likes. It has racked up over 2.2M views, and was shared by Donald Trump Jr. 

National and local media reports on Candra’s story:

Washington Times
Nevada mom goes viral after school board cuts her mic during meeting 

CCSD responds after mom sharing daughter’s assignment goes viral
Nevada school board cuts off mother after exposing graphic book.
(Fox 5 News Local Las Vegas)

Fox and Friends 
(Some details in this report are incorrect because Fox indicated that the assignment was an excerpt from a book rather than a student-generated assignment).

Matt Walsh discusses the sexualization of children in schools

Daily Caller
Mom reads aloud purported assignment given to her daughter. School board cuts her mic because it’s too obscene.

The Review Journal
Victor Joecks: School Board scolds mom for violating “decorum”.

The Epoch Times
Las Vegas Mother Reads Obscene Content From Daughters Assignment, School Board Mutes Her Mic

We want to recognize the news outlet that proved to be the most unreliable. Newsweek picked up Candra’s story and based it on a CCSD tweet that was later pulled down. Reporters never reached out to Candra or Power2Parent for comment or clarification and got the story completely wrong. Please see their “fact checked” summary.
Fact Check: Was Clark County mom silenced over “graphic” school assignment

By Deborah Earl, VP Power2Parent