Parents across Las Vegas are angry after learning that a sitting Nevada lawmaker used his public-school classroom to encourage students to walk out of class.
The incident, brought to attention by Moms for Liberty, involves Reuben D’Silva, a Democratic assemblyman who also works as a social studies teacher at Rancho High School.
According to information shared by Moms for Liberty Nevada Legislative Director Yadusha Jones, D’Silva used class time to encourage students to walk out of school for a political protest.
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Afterward, he recorded and shared a video from inside a Clark County School District classroom praising the walkout and brushing off the loss of instructional time as “missing an hour or so of class.”
Parents don’t send their kids to school so teachers can decide instruction can be put on hold “for an hour or so”.
They don’t send them there to be nudged, pushed, or pressured into political activity.
And they definitely don’t expect a lawmaker to use a taxpayer-funded classroom and a captive audience of minors to promote a political cause.
Yet here we are.
Schools love to say they are neutral. CCSD says it. Administrators say it. Teachers say it.
But neutrality goes out the window when a teacher is actively encouraging students to leave class for a protest and then filming political content inside the classroom.
That’s not education. That’s indoctrination.
And parents are tired of being told to pretend it’s normal.
There’s also the safety issue. Walkouts are not harmless. Students leave campus. Supervision gets shaky.
Parents expect schools to protect their kids during the school day, not create unnecessary chaos.
Then there’s the academic side. Nevada schools aren’t exactly setting records for excellence.
Learning loss is real. Absenteeism is a real problem.
State data has shown that many students are still struggling to catch up after COVID disruptions.
So when a teacher shrugs off lost class time like it’s nothing, parents hear that academics are optional when politics gets involved.
Jones called the incident a breach of trust, and that’s putting it politely.
Parents trust schools with their children every day. That trust depends on one basic rule: Teach the kids. Don’t use them.
Supporters of D’Silva will say this is about civic engagement. They’ll argue that protests are part of history and students should learn about them.
Fine. Teach about protests. Explain them. Put them in a textbook.
But urging students to participate during class is something else entirely.
Teachers have authority. Students don’t get to walk away from that easily.
When a teacher encourages a political action, students may feel pressured to go along, even if they or their families disagree.
That power imbalance matters, whether adults want to admit it or not.
This isn’t about left or right. It’s about boundaries.
Parents are fed up with schools drifting away from their core job. Reading. Writing. Math. History. Real learning.
If public schools want trust, they need to earn it back.
And that starts with keeping politics out of the classroom and remembering who schools are supposed to serve.
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