Nevada student says anonymous gun tips are being used to bully him

A high school student in Nevada said in federal court that he is being harassed by students and administrators who search him for a gun every time someone identifies him on a state hotline that invites anonymous reports of school threats.

“I am a student, there is no danger,” Reno High School junior Lucas Gorelick, 16, told the Associated Press on Friday. “I have rights. I want people to know what is happening, and I want to ensure safety for all future students.”

The lawsuit, filed Monday in the US District Court in Reno, argues that school district officials violated their constitutional rights to equal protection and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

He said his backpack and pickup truck had been searched five times in the past two weeks but no weapons were found. He also noted that he was the target of other incidents he called a “bullying situation” related to his Jewish heritage, including his work with Democratic Party candidates and his academic achievements.

Gorelick is identified by his initials in the lawsuit. The teenager, his father Jeff Gorelick, and his lawyer Luke Busby agreed in separate telephone calls with AP that they would allow them to report his name.

Jeff Gorelick characterized the Department of Education’s hotline called SafeVoice as a “unthinking system” that ensures anonymity for bullies.

The father compared using the system to say his son has a gun on campus to “swatting,” or hoax police calls that send authorities to an innocent person’s home. Jeff Gorelick, who owns hunting rifles, said his son does not have a key to the gun safe or own guns of his own.

Jeff Gorelick said the anonymous tips “gives people free rein to do abusive things to other people.” He added, “If the purpose is to provide safe schools, which I think was the intended purpose, having a little bit of control on abuse would have been a good idea.”

The Gorelick case is active, although he will be graduating next month.

The school district attorney, Neil Rombardo, said that campus administrators had to take the suggestions seriously to protect Reno High’s 1,600 students, and SafeVoice had not determined tips about Lucas Gorelick to be an abuse of the system.

SafeVoice data is confidential under state law, the statement said, but a continuing “false tip sequence” can trigger a Nevada State Police investigation and disclosure of the identity of the reporting person.