DAVIS COUNTY, Utah — On Tuesday, the Davis School District presented a summary of its settlement with the Department of Justice to the Rules and General Oversight Committee at the Utah State Capitol.
In October 2021, the Davis School District agreed to a settlement with the Department of Justice after the DOJ found evidence of "widespread racial discrimination and harassment" in the district.
"Some of the findings in the letter include pervasive use of the n-word and other racial epithets, Black students being called apes or being told their skin was dirty or looked like feces," said Heidi Alder, the district's legal consultant. "The DOJ also determined that the district had not trained administrators and teachers properly on how to identify and respond to incidents of harassment."
Since the settlement, the Davis School District has worked to address racial harassment and discrimination in the district by creating an office to process reports of harassment and discrimination, developing procedures to report and respond to harassment complaints, sending notices to parents, students and staff on anti-harassment and non-discrimination alongside training, professional development, and more.
"We want to make sure that first and foremost that we're educating them, and then to the children who experience harassment, any type of harassment, not just racial, we want to make sure we support them," said Assistant Superintendent Fidel Montero.
Following the presentation of the settlement agreement, Utah State Reps. Kera Birkeland and Brady Brammer expressed interest in looking for solutions to better enforce statutes in local districts.
"My concern is when we don't handle things like this well, it backfires," Birkeland said. "People, the divide becomes stronger. The issue of 'you don't say things like that, they're totally racially inappropriate' go[es] out the window because now parents and kids are upset by the process instead of being able to be focused on what really needs to be focused on, which is completely inappropriate remarks."
"What other things are weighed in favor of protecting the school district's or the school's actions or justifying them or not addressing the problems versus the parental and student rights?" Brammer said. "The vertical of the schools and the enforcement of problems within the schools is a major problem in the state right now."
