After more than five years of development, Project REAL is excited to announce that Government, Independence, & You (a guide to navigating life as a young and independent adult) is available at no cost to local Southern Nevadans. We’re also happy to state that there are more than 75 locations throughout all of Clark County where people can pick up copies for themselves or the young adults in their lives!
While you can download a digital copy for free (at http://projectrealnv.org/adulting), given the length of the material and how we imagine people using it, we highly suggest picking up a physical copy! To help you do that, we’ve teamed up with some amazing partners throughout Southern Nevada so that you can easily reach a location that is giving out the books.
Please consider visiting one of these partners to get your own copy (we advise calling ahead, to make sure they haven’t run out):
By Appointment Only
Please call 702.703.6529 to set a pickup time
Bunkerville Community Center
Cambridge Recreation Center
Cora Coleman Senior Center
Desert Breeze Community Center
Dr. William U. Pearson Community Center
Goodsprings Community Center
Helen Meyer Community Center
Hollywood Recreation Center
Indian Springs Community Center
Logandale Recreation Center
Moapa Recreation Center
Moapa Valley Recreation Center
Moapa Valley Community Center
Mountain Crest Community Center
Paradise Recreation Center
Parkdale Recreation & Senior Center and Water Park
Robert E. “Bob” Price Recreation Center
Sandy Valley Community & Senior Center
Searchlight Community Center
Slim Kidwell Center
Spirit Mountain Activity Center
Walnut Recreation Center
West Flamingo Senior Center
Whitney Recreation and Senior Center
Winchester Dondero Cultural Center
Blue Diamond Library
Bunkerville Library
Centennial Hills Library
Clark County Library
East Las Vegas Library
Enterprise Library
Goodsprings Library
Indian Springs Library
Laughlin Library
Laughlin Library
Meadows Library
Mesquite Library
Moapa Town Library
Moapa Valley Library
Moapa Valley Library
Mt Charleston Library
Rainbow Library
Sahara West Library
Sandy Valley Library
Searchlight Library
Spring Valley Library
Summerlin Library
Sunrise Library
West Charleston Library
West Las Vegas Library
Whitney Library
Windmill Library
Cimarron Rose Community Center
Centennial Hills Community Center
Doolittle Community Center
Dula Community Center
East Las Vegas Community Center
Durango Hills Community Center
Mirabelli Community Center
Stupak Community Center
Veterans Memorial Community Center
Aliante Library
Alexander Library
City Hall Library
Black Mountain Recreation Center & Aquatic Complex
Downtown Recreation Center
Downtown Senior Center
Henderson Multigenerational Center
Heritage Park Senior Facility
Silver Springs Recreation Center
Valley View Recreation Center
Whitney Ranch Recreation Center
James I Gibson Library
Green Valley Library
Heritage Park Senior Facility Library
Paseo Verde Library
West Henderson Library *Upon Opening*
Si quieres descargarte nuestras guías de conversación gratuitas “REALReady”, entra aquí:
If you’re looking to download our free REAL Ready Conversation Guides, just go here:
Urban exploring can be exciting, dangerous…and illegal!
Witth so many lawful places to explore…is it worth the risk?
Urban exploration is the act of exploring manmade structures. Typically this activity focuses on abandoned ruins and hidden components of the manmade environment (like sewer tunnels beneath a city). While there are social groups and websites dedicated to that kind of activity, it’s not without controversy: usually urban exploring involves trespassing – the act of knowingly entering another person’s property without permission in a manner that amounts to a crime. When incidents of trespassing are prosecuted, they can result in hefty fines and or jail time for the person that is charged.
There may be a certain thrill one gets from exploring abandoned malls, hotels and even amusement parks. It can seem like a victimless crime since no one is getting hurt. Given that many of the structures being explored aren’t in use and seem to have not had anyone using them for years, it can also be a surprise for younger people to discover that it’s not just spooky and cool: it’s a place they’re legally prohibited from being. That’s how people often end up in trouble for this activity.
As one guide to urban exploring online warns though, people need to know about the places they’re going. It explains, “You can be arrested while urban exploring, and the jail time can range from only a one-night stay to well over a few years. Sometimes urban explorers that believe they are above the basic laws will do more than just urban explore a property, usually leading to several charges being brought against them.”
For many urban explorers, they may think that buildings are completely abandoned but have no proof that they are. If the building does in fact have an owner, and they decide to pursue further actions by calling the police and pressing charges for trespassing, there is nothing you could do about it. While the chances seem low, this happens all the time – enough that we were able to gather more than a few somewhat notorious examples of it happening:
In 2014, a famous urban explorer who uses the pseudonym Seph Lawless fought trespassing charges after being arrested in Cleveland. Seph Lawless has made a career out of sneaking into abandoned buildings and taking photos.This man photographer recently sold $60,000 in self published books and just finished his most recent project Black Friday – a collection of photographs from Seph’s adventures into abandoned malls throughout the midwest. He was interviewed on FOX news about his recent project and immediately following the interview, he was arrested for criminal trespassing.
Seph Lawless tried to argue that his activities were a victim-less and witness-less crime in an attempt to get the case thrown out of court. A group of Cleveland detectives however had combed through thousands of his private online communications. They found clues that linked Seph to countless crimes involving trespassing. After Seph was arrested, he was released on a $500 bond and his sentencing was reduced to a first class misdemeanor which is a lot better than a felony that he could’ve easily have gotten.
At the beginning of our COVID-19 lockdown in April of 2020, a 42 year old Richard Mcguire was arrested after he sailed to the Disney-owned island in Orlando and began recording YouTube videos documenting his experience. McGuire was caught on a Disney security camera, which prompted a dozen deputies to swarm the island to find him. When they were unable to locate him, they returned to the mainland, waited for Mcguire to leave the island and then arrested him. Disney has issued a lifetime ban to McGuire for his trip and he has been charged with trespassing and is facing up to a year in jail.
Urban exploring may seem like an interesting new trend that allows people to explore their surroundings, but it is just dangerous, and generally, it’s not worth the criminal consequences of getting caught. Trespassing is a serious offense and it is not worth the risk of being arrested/charged just to look at an abandoned building.
It is best to not become involved in activities that will put you at risk for jail times or banishment. Ultimately, what you decide to do is up to you, but before you jump into your next adventure, just ask yourself if going into older buildings and abandoned properties is really going to be worth the criminal penalties you’ll face if you get caught, let alone the consequences you may end up facing at home.
Questions:
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Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the articles this piece was sourced from here:
https://craftofmanhood.com/6-ways-to-get-arrested-while-urban-exploring/
https://thenewsleaders.com/urban-explorers-risk-injury-arrest-for-social-media-fame/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/znwk5x/can-you-be-legally-prosecuted-for-urban-exploring-116
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Contributed by: Breanna Rizo
Edited by: Mike Kamer
A burning Sparkler in the child’s hand. Photos with a small depth of field. High quality photo
Don’t let a little loud fun grow out of control
Fireworks can be plenty of fun – explosions are exciting, and they can make a holiday extremely memorable. With all the bright lights, loud sounds, & feelings they evoke it’s easy to forget that fireworks can be dangerous and can put you in some legally troubling situations if you’re not careful!
The fireworks people tend to want and go to extremes to get are the ones that shoot up high in the sky: the ones the professionals use for big fireworks shows. The problem with those types of fireworks is that not only is setting them off against the law unless you’re licensed to handle those kinds of explosives, it’s illegal just to be in possession of them in many circumstances!
Now we won’t make this out to be a bigger problem than it is: There are plenty of reminders that go out around the Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve each year reminding people about the differences between legal fireworks and prohibited ones, and additional warnings telling the public that even the legal fireworks should only be used during certain hours. The problem with these warnings is that they don’t typically amount to much: Police and Fire departments regularly warn people they’ll be out issuing tickets, yet when neighbors complain about loud, explose, theme-park style professional-grade fireworks going off at 2am in the morning without being able to get any response more than a suggestion to leave messages on tip-lines.
So why be concerned? ACCIDENTS. These aren’t worse-case-scenario situations either. Property destruction and manslaughter are two of the many charges that can result from friends setting off a few fireworks growing out of control into blazing wildfires and homes burning down.
Three teens in 2021 were arrested on arson charges for a fire that burned 13 homes, 84 acres and was started by shooting roman candles into the grass. A detective on this case had come out with information saying that the initial fire was started with the intentional setting of a Roman candle, intentionally shooting it into the grass. Fire number two was set, according to statements, by one of the teens with a lighter intentionally.
In the same year, 2021, there was yet another incident involving fires and fireworks in Pleasant Hill, CA. Two 16-year old boys are possibly facing criminal charges in connection with a vegetation fire near Diablo Valley College that authorities said was started by an illegal firework thrown from a car. The fire department in Pleasant Hill had determined that the blaze -that burned about a quarter-acre of grass and trees- was caused by a tennis ball-size explosive mortar device thrown from the passing vehicle which caused embers to spark and spray from the device. Officials said that had weather conditions been worse that day, the embers would have threatened homes, surrounding school campuses as well as parked vehicles.
It’s not just teens that end up facing very real criminal consequences over a few fireworks! In 2021 for example , a man in California found himself in the middle of a personal injury case because he was lighting illegal fireworks in his neighborhood. An explosion caused by fireworks he used caused car alarms to go off, windows to break and even injured many bystanders. Two young brothers, ages 4 and 8, ended up with burned corneas! What should’ve been a fun holiday spent with family turned into nightmares for many families in that neighborhood. After the explosion, the man threatened witnesses and asked them to delete any of the footage they had that implicated him of this crime. He is currently being charged with two felony counts of explosion causing mayhem and great bodily injury, one felony count of explosion of a destructive device causing bodily injury, and one felony count of dissuading a witness by force or threat
Fireworks are not something that should be handled carelessly, they are dangerous and can cause harm to those around if the right precautions are not taken. Do not be the person that causes your neighbors to undergo pain and trauma, enjoy the holidays but do it safely. If not for you, for the sake of those around you.
Questions to Explore:
For more details, you can read articles that discuss the specific incidents cited in this piece here:
https://www.gokallaw.com/california-man-charged-in-fireworks-explosion-personal-injury-case/
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Contributed by: Breanna Rizo
Edited by: Mike Kamer
What’s more cringe than students committing avoidable crimes? When they end up filming it and uploading it to the apps they use! To be fair, maybe that means they didn’t realize it was a crime, but they’re still accountable to the law. Consider this well known example from August, September, and October 2021:
At the time, school districts all across the nation – including most school districts throughout Nevada – dealt with something called the #DeviousLicks challenge that was popular on TikTok at the time.
The challenge involved students posting footage with the #DeviousLicks hashtag that showed property they stole had stolen school from schools to social media for views and likes. The idea wasn’t to steal fun stuff, just boring and outrageous things they didn’t need.
Generally, the students would leave the things they stole lying around to be found. Some items were small and seemingly inconsequential, toilet paper rolls from the bathroom stalls and soap from the dispensers by the sinks. Other items were of no value to the students (at least the toilet paper could be used if they’d chosen to use it): this included wall-mounted pencil sharpeners being taken from classrooms, and water fountains being removed from their installed locations inside the school hallways: the items were left to be found by school staff, so it wasn’t really theft…right?
WRONG! What was meant to be a popularity development prank on an app was in fact the crime of vandalism. Students could also face charges of theft, even if they didn’t keep the items they stole.
In Nevada, school leaders took action “There are a lot of different types of activities that you can do with social media, such as talking about volunteering, such as about helping one another. But hurting your school community is not one of those things”, said the superintendent McNeill of WCSD. Principal Jennifer Ritter from Cram Middle School located in North Las Vegas wrote “please understand that any student caught engaging in these behaviors will be disciplined at school and school police will be contacted. We will not tolerate the purposeful destruction of property, graffiti or theft”. Summer Stephans, the superintendent of Churchill County School District stressed that “any student caught making a violent threat on social media causing a school disturbance will be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible”.
Given the overwhelming amount of evidence (in the form of the videos uploaded and posted to TikTok by the students that were stealing things), it seems pretty clear that there was one huge misunderstanding going on: A lot of these kids didn’t realize what they were doing was committing crimes!
Criminal consequences aren’t just a theory, young people from across the nation actually face serious consequences. Consider the following examples, from the Marion County School District in Florida where nine students were arrested on misdemeanor vandalism charges for participating in the “devious lick” trend by ripping paper towel dispensers off the wall and destroying a urinal.
In Kentucky where eight students were charged after being caught doing these pranks, four of them faced vandalism charges, and the other four faced theft charges.
Four people in Pennsylvania were also arrested for their #DeviousLicks when they caused $10,000 worth of damages to school buses. Three juveniles and a 19-year-old were charged with institutional vandalism, criminal trespass, theft from a motor vehicle, criminal mischief, and loitering.
These are only a few examples of how what seems like harmless pranks can end up in criminal charges. This whole #DeviousLicks thing started as a TikTok trend, yet ended up being a crime. If you take nothing else from this article, at least walk away remembering that just because it’s being posted online and done by a lot of people, that doesn’t mean you won’t end up getting in trouble with the law if you do it yourself!
While #DeviousLicks is not longer the *Shiney New Thing* there’s always another prank to be thought up that may seem like nothing more than stupid fun…. until a student gets caught and charged by law enforcement, at which time it becomes clear they’ve made a huge mistake.
This is why students really need to take the advice of “Pause before you prank” to heart, and evaluate whether the choices they are about to make in some circumstances are actually breaking laws, and not just the kind of thing that can get them grounded.
Not only can the wrong choices lead to troubles with the law, they can result in students being removed from their schools and burdened with criminal records that do not just dissapear when they turn 18.
Questions:
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the articles this piece was sourced from here:
https://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/2021/dec/22/churchill-county-school-district-takes-proactive-s/
https://www.newsweek.com/group-arrested-tiktok-challenge-damage-school-buses-pennsylvania-1636927
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Contributed by: Emma Winkelman
Edited By: Mike Kamer
Just because you see actors doing it in the movies, doesn’t mean you can take a bat to a mailbox with ZERO consequences!
In many classic movies and TV shoes (including Stand By Me, The Benchwarmers, and Dazed & Confused), famous actors like David Spade, Rob Schneider and Jon Heder are shown hanging out of moving vehicles while using baseball bats to knock down mailboxes. This activity is sometimes referred to as ‘Mailbox Baseball’. While these scenes can lead to hilarity in the films they’re in, the movies fail to show the real world consequences if any of the characters had been caught.
To be clear: Mailbox Baseball is a federal crime and you can charges with a felony for taking part in it. Yes, you read that right, children and young adults that have destroyed mailboxes can be and have been given prison sentences because of their actions. The really terrifying part to all of this – skipping over the risk of serious injury to everyone involved – is the fact that the young people that are assigned jail or prison sentences are given them even when they didn’t realize what they were doing was a crime!
Whoever destroys a mailbox or mail can be fined or face up to three years in prison, according to federal law. There is a case in 2014 in which a judge handed out jail time to a man who was a part of a group that racked up over $1,000 in damages during a vandalism spree in Massachusetts. This man was sentenced to 19 ½ consecutive weekends in jail for taking part in the vandalism. Destroying mailboxes is not just a prank, the rest of the young men involved received a punishment for their part as well, 2 of them were given class A misdemeanors and 2 years probation. The last person involved pleaded guilty to a Class 3 felony count of conspiracy to knowingly damage property and received a one-year sentence.
In 2000, four teens were arrested in Clinton, NJ in connection to a series of mailbox vandalisms that tormented a local neighborhood. Between the months of January and March, investigators found that 80 mailboxes were destroyed. The night the teens were arrested they admitted to destroying all of the mailboxes. The three older teens were charged with 80 counts of third-degree criminal mischief and 80 counts of conspiracy to commit criminal mischief. The younger teen was charged with 39 counts.
Similarly, in Clarence, NY in 2017, four teens were arrested for damaging 17 mailboxes. All four of the teens were charged with counts of misdemeanor criminal mischief. What technically is criminal mischief ? Any time a person damages someone else’s property without the owner’s permission, that’s criminal mischief. Although some classic films make destroying mailboxes look fun, it is not an action that is taken lightly.
“Whoever willfully or maliciously injures, tears down or destroys any letter box or other receptacle intended or used for the receipt or delivery of mail on any mail route, or breaks open the same or willfully or maliciously injures, defaces or destroys any mail deposited therein, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
As kids get ready for summer or even the weekend, when they have free time to do what they want, they should be thinking about making the right decisions and the consequences of their actions. Destroying mailboxes or any other private property is not a game or something to do with your friends when you’re bored, it is a criminal action and there will be real consequences.
Questions:
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the articles this piece was sourced from here:
https://www.mailboss.com/mailboss-the-mailbox-baseball-cure/
Contributed by: Breanna Rizo
Edited by: Mike Kamer
MAYBE your disagreements can be resolved by talking them out rather than breaking out into fist-fighting?!
As if students weren’t struggling enough from adjusting back to in-person classes – after the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns – school districts from across the country, including Nevada, have been experiencing an increase in violence among students. While some adults anticipated that the return to classrooms would be challenging for students, the volume of students that are easily triggered into violence and ready to take on anyone who upset them has surprised many parents, guardians and school staff members.
Consider a few of the documented incidents of school violence from Nevada’s campuses in recent times. Last year, there were over 100 fights recorded throughout middle and high schools in the Washoe County School District during the 2020-2021 school year (according to nevadareportcard.nv.gov). Meanwhile in the southern part of the state, CCSD reported more than 5,300 instances of violence in the schools serving Clark County’s youth.
Since students have returned to in person learning, many classrooms feel more like boxing venues where students take their anger out on their fellow classmates instead of safe havens for learning. These incidents have created huge distractions for the students, but they’re also leading to something else: serious criminal consequences for the young Nevadans that get caught up in the violence.
In Washoe County School District, a January 2022 viral video from Vaughn Middle School that captured a fight amongst multiple students. This fight took place in the middle of the classroom during instruction. Teachers tried their best to break up the fight. This left Vaughn unsure on what to do to stop the student violence after being the 54th fight to occur this year alone. These students may only be in middle school, but when the violence is significant enough, it can lead to very adult legal consequences like being charged with violent crimes! Some young people may even face being charged as an adult when the violence is notable enough.
In February 2022 at Las Vegas High School, a 15-year-old student was sitting at her desk when a student came up behind her and hit her a total of 30 times, leaving her unconscious. There was no one who came to the rescue of the victim. She was not taken to the hospital until after her mom arrived and took her herself.
Students-on-student violence isn’t the only problem either. Students have been attacking teachers as well. One incident reported from CCSD involved a teacher that was assaulted by one of their students. After a teacher tried to step in to break up a fight against two girl classmates, the teacher thrown and tackled to the ground and punched many times.
In all of these cases, students may go into the moment thinking “Worst case scenario, I get grounded and detention” but that’s wrong! In addition to risking suspension or expulsion from the school district, students are risking serious criminal charges. Assault, battery, and mutual combat are just a few of the very adult criminal charges students risk dealing with when they engage in violence no matter if it’s on campus at school or off campus outside of school hours.
Fist-fighting is much more than just roughhousing with a classmate, these innocents can lead to serious consequences not only with your school administration, but also with the law. Fighting is a SERIOUS and can cause major injuries – not just a bloody nose. Think before you do, it might save you from getting into some serious legal trouble.
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Questions:
Be sure to provide full explanations for each of your answers. For more details, you can read the articles this piece was sourced from here:
Contributed by: Emma Winkelman
Edited by: Mike Kamer
Our team at Project REAL is very excited to be announcing an exciting new development with REAL Reno Rarities – a series of fundraising events launching on Law Day 2022 and concluding on May 15th These events are designed to raise funds for at least one full-time employee or two part-time ones who can help our Northern Nevada expansion return to and accelerate past our pre-pandemic service levels in the region. You can learn more about these exciting activities at a mini-site we created for the campaign here:
We’re also happy to announce #NVReturnReady and Hope & Hospitality education campaigns. We knew we could serve the rest of the state at the same pace, but these outreach and service projects helped us see the support we’d have if we could only reach those other communities. Following those projects, we have a number of new schools lined up for service, and have begun working on delivering some of our resources to large audiences of college students as well.
As we get closer to our #NationalLawDay2022 launch date on May 1st, we look forward to providing service updates about the work we’re already doing with the support of our current team.
If you would like to bring Project REAL to a school in your Northern Nevadan community, please contact our Northern Nevada Regional Coordinator Marlee Carpenter at mcarpenter@projectrealnv.org
**For Immediate Release**
‘Hope & Hospitality’ Raises $10,000+ to Prevent Teen Domestic Violence in Nevada.
Now Two Nevadan Nonprofits Plan to Be In Schools Soon
(December 7, 2021) This fall, a campaign by Project REAL and SAFE House named “Hope & Hospitality” saw 30 Nevadan businesses selling items raising money to prevent teen dating violence through education. A staggering $10,000 was raised $1 at a time and more than 5,000 Nevadans learned about each organizations’ life-changing work.
Hope & Hospitality was conceived to create a funding stream for distribution of a booklet for classrooms Project REAL created called “Government, Adult Interactions, & You.” That material is designed to teach students how the law shapes and regulates certain interactions between adults, including various forms of violence.
“When we have younger people referred to us, it is often only after law enforcement has gotten involved, such as when neighbors call the police. The power of this guide is in giving them the tools to say ‘stop’, or ‘no’, and to identify and leave at the first signs of abuse, rather than enduring years of abuse,” said SAFE House’s Outreach Coordinator Monica Richards. “We’re thrilled Project REAL invited us to partner in enhancing their material, and that they’ve made it available for us to distribute as we work in the community” she continued.
With this incredible funding, Project REAL and SAFE House are working hard to get those guides into the hands of students. But knowing that students will need to proactively read them, the agencies are looking to do more than just hand them out.
“What we created is a guide, both digital and physical. We can’t just pass these things out and hope for the best” observed Project REAL’s Senior Director Mike Kamer. He continued by explaining that while free pdfs are available to anyone that wants them, printed copies of the guides will be donated to schools that invite guest speakers from Project REAL or SAFE House. “Ideally, we want to have the chance to show them how prevalent yet identifiable relationship violence can be, so that they end up willingly choosing to read the material on their own time – as an investment in themselves, in their own health and safety for now and years to come.”
Project REAL is asking high school administrators, government, health teachers, and PTA-members to contact them for speaking engagements. They have 45-minute presentations for individual classes or larger groups in school-assembly like settings. To learn more about having guest speakers visit a school, interested parties in Nevada should contact Project REAL.
For Media Inquiries contact Mike Kamer at mkamer@projectreal.org or 702-703-6529
Project REAL:
501(c)3 non-profit organization, was founded in 2005 by Sam Lionel and Irwin Molasky to meet the challenge of teaching K-12th grade Nevada students the importance of the law. They have taught over 185,000 Nevada students about the importance of the law with the goal of preparing them to be informed, law-abiding and participating citizens through courthouse field trips, mock trials, and unique in-class experiences. For more information or to make a financial contribution so more students could benefit, please visit http://projectrealnv.org.
Safe House
A Las Vegas, Nevada community based non-profit organization committed to Stop Abuse in the Family Environment by providing a comprehensive approach to end domestic violence that includes crisis intervention, safe shelter, counseling, advocacy, and community education. The organization aids victims of domestic violence by providing shelter and other services. For more information or to make a financial contribution to help address domestic violence in Southern Nevada, please visit https://safehousenv.org/
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Thank you for letting us watch the civil case! It was cool because it was a real case and not one played out. I had a lot of fun watching the other kids act out a session. Thank you for your time.
- Kaylie [Hewetson Elementary - Grade 5]
Thank you for letting us experience court for the first time. It was the best experience ever, thank you for everything. You really made me think about being a judge. Thank you
-Mina L [ Twitchell Elementary - Grade 5]
My favorite part of the fieldtrip to the courthouse is when I got to play the part of Ron. I got to go on the witness chair and speaking. I helped Potter to be not guilty. Thank you for the great opportunity.
