The father of the Rancho High School student fatally beaten by classmates near campus two years ago is suing the Clark County School District.

Jonathan Lewis Sr. filed suit earlier this month in Clark County District Court claiming negligence leading to wrongful death and negligent hiring, training and supervision in the death of his son Jonathan Lewis Jr.

“At least one altercation or conflict involving Jonathan and/or his peers had occurred prior to the incident, and CCSD staff were on notice or should have been on notice of escalating tensions involving Jonathan and other students at Rancho High School,” the complaint said.

Bystander video of the beating shows Lewis Jr., 17, and a large group of teenagers, many of them also Rancho students, fighting in an alley just off campus after school on Nov. 1, 2023. The group quickly mobbed Lewis Jr., beating, kicking and stomping him while he was on the ground.

He died in the hospital six days later from blunt force trauma. Police said it was apparent early on that he had suffered “nonsurvivable head trauma.”

Four of the assailants, ages 16 and 17 at the time, were initially charged as adults with second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit battery.

The four were later transferred to the juvenile justice system, where they pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and were adjudicated to a juvenile detention center until they completed a rehabilitation program. Five additional teens as young as 13 were also arrested in connection with the attack and charged as juveniles.

Lewis Sr.’s complaint said CCSD needed to prevent reasonably foreseeable harm to its students at school — “even in areas adjacent to campus grounds during or immediately after school hours.”

In an interview, Lewis Sr.’s attorney Sam Mirejovsky said he wanted to know more about the offending students’ disciplinary history, and whether school officials were following laws that guide student discipline or were aware of an after-school fight brewing that day.

“My gut is that the kids don’t go from zero to murder. You don’t just wake up one morning and say, ‘Oh, today we’re going to beat somebody to death,’” he said. “There were red flags, either with the specific individuals or with this atmosphere just adjacent to campus, of violence — as we understand it, (it) was not isolated, and this wasn’t just lightning in a bottle, that this was something that was known to the school.”

Lewis Sr.’s lawsuit joins a similar one that the boy’s mother filed in April. Her suit similarly claims that CCSD was negligent. She also sued the owner of the apartment block on North 21st Street, across the street from the North Las Vegas school, where the alley assault took place, claiming that the property owner needed to take steps to prevent harm to others “particularly in light of repeated loitering and known criminal or violent activity in the area.”

Mirejovsky said legislators need to give educators more power to remove students from school for misbehavior and need to not tolerate offenses that can elevate to a crime like murder if left unchecked.

“My guess is it started small and built its way up, and it was allowed to build up via the tolerance, in part, permitted and enforced by our legislature,” he said.

Video of the incident showed that Lewis pushed one person and punched another before he went down. Police have said the conflict started over a stolen vape pen and headphones.

Supporters rallied around Lewis’ mother, visiting the courthouse while the suspects’ criminal cases were pending to demand justice for a boy who they said was standing up for a bullied friend the day he was mortally beaten.

Footage of the beating went viral worldwide.