Las Vegas Teacher Arrested After Students Describe Years of Disturbing Classroom "Games"
A fifth grade teacher in Las Vegas has been arrested after multiple students came forward with complaints that are genuinely disturbing — and one of them involves a serrated bread knife.
Kha Nam Nguyen, 51, a teacher at Wing and Lilly Fong Elementary School, was arrested March 13 by the Clark County School District's police department. He's facing one count of child abuse or neglect and five counts of contact with a minor or mentally ill person. He has been employed by the district since 2007.
What He Was Actually Doing
According to the arrest report, Nguyen had a game he played with his students called "knife-tag." He would turn off the classroom lights and walk around holding what he called a "cake knife." Investigators found a large serrated bread knife in a cabinet in his classroom. That charge alone — the knife game in the dark with fifth graders — is what landed him the child abuse count.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the only “game” he played.
He also allegedly played what he called the "teddy bear game," in which he would select a student, predominantly female, to stand in as his teddy bear while he pretended to cry and be distraught. The student was expected to comfort him. One child told police the experience left them feeling "weird in a bad way." Multiple students used the words "uncomfortable and scared" to describe his behavior overall.
The complaints didn't stop there. Students accused Nguyen of inappropriate touching, making uncomfortable comments, "shipping" students as romantic couples, calling girls "gold diggers," and calling students "special ed" when they got answers wrong. Staff at the school had also previously complained about unwanted advances and unwanted gifts from him.
He Admitted to It
When police interviewed Nguyen, he didn't exactly deny what happened. He admitted to "doing some of these acts for years" and described it as rapport building — a way to entertain the students and get the class's attention.
"At one point during the interview, Nguyen mentioned that he could see why some of his actions were weird now that he was talking about it," investigators wrote in the arrest report.
He specifically denied calling students "special ed." Everything else he essentially walked investigators through himself.
This Had Been Flagged Before
The school's principal confirmed to police that there had been prior complaints about Nguyen — including an anonymous complaint about unprofessional statements toward students and separate complaints from staff about his behavior toward them personally. The real question is: why didn't any of it result in his removal before now?
He has been released on $15,000 bail, cannot return to the school, and is on electronic monitoring.
If you suspect child abuse, the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-422-4453.
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