UTAH
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Utah announced a settlement agreement with Davis School District in Utah to address racial discrimination, officials stated.
The agreement includes addressing “serious and widespread” racial harassment of Black and Asian-American students.
The department’s review, which focused on 2015-2020, found hundreds of documented uses of the N-word, among other racial epithets, derogatory racial comments, and physical assaults targeting district students at dozens of schools.
According to a September 2021, DOJ letter sent to Benjamin Onofrio, General Counsel Davis School District, these are the allegations:
- Black students told the Department that incidents happened frequently, at times in front of teachers and other staff, and some would not respond or intervene in any way.
- Some students said that they told teachers or other staff when they experienced harassment initially, but when the staff did not respond, the students became discouraged and doubted that staff would ever intervene.
- Many Black students said the harassment was so pervasive and happened so often in front of adults that they concluded school employees condoned the behavior and believed reporting it further would be futile. Some students also said they feared that if they told adults about the racial harassment their harassers would retaliate and the harassment would get worse.
- Several said that they disliked attending school and at times missed school because of racial harassment. Students also told us in interviews that administrators and teachers targeted them for discipline.
- Students believed they were disciplined for behavior that white students also engaged in without consequence.
- Several Black students also reported feeling that some teachers, most of whom are white, were less welcoming and helpful academically to them in comparison to white reports that were not captured in the District’s database “Encore” or other records.
- Indeed, various administrators acknowledged that they did not enter all complaints in Encore.
- Moreover, administrators admitted they did not maintain many documents, including complaints of racial harassment and other forms of discrimination.
- DOJ notified the District that it should retain all documents relevant to this investigation. 2 Despite repeated requests, the District’s production of this information remains incomplete. 3 DOJ conducted two in-person and three virtual site visits. In addition, DOJ personnel traveled to Davis County, Utah to meet with and interview complainants and community members. 2 students.
- Black students reported that they wanted access to student organizations similar to those offered to other students that would serve as a forum for discussing and addressing common experiences but their schools had not approved requests for such clubs.
To read the entire letter click here: DOJ
The Department of Justice opened its investigation in July 2019 under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The investigation revealed persistent failures to respond to reports of race-based harassment of Black and Asian-American students by district staff and other students.
The department concluded that for years, Davis’s ineffective response left students vulnerable to continued harassment and that students believed the district condoned the behavior.
The department also found that Davis disciplined Black students more harshly than their white peers for similar behavior and that Davis denied Black students the ability to form student groups while supporting similar requests by other students.
Black and Asian-American students are each roughly 1 percent of the approximately 73,000 students enrolled in the district.
“Pervasive racial harassment and other forms of racial discrimination in public schools violate the Constitution’s most basic promise of equal protection,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division. “This agreement will help generate the institutional change necessary to keep Black and Asian-American students safe. We look forward to Davis demonstrating to its students and school community that it will no longer tolerate racial discrimination in its schools.”
“The Justice Department thanks the many parents and students who came forward and shared their experiences and the Davis School District for its cooperation with our investigation,” said Acting United States Attorney Andrea Martinez for the District of Utah. “As the federal partners who work and live in this community, we are hopeful that this agreement is the start of a new chapter in which Black and Asian-American students will attend Davis schools without fear.”
Under the agreement, Davis will retain a consultant to review and revise anti-discrimination policies and procedures and support the district as it undertakes significant institutional reforms. Among other steps, Davis will:
- create a new department to handle complaints of race discrimination;
- train staff on how to identify, investigate, and respond to complaints of racial harassment and discriminatory discipline practices;
- inform students and parents of how to report harassment and discrimination;
- create a centralized, electronic reporting system to track and manage complaints and Davis’s response to complaints;
- implement student, staff, and parent training and education on identifying and preventing race discrimination, including discriminatory harassment;
- analyze and review discipline data and amend policies to ensure non-discriminatory enforcement of discipline policies; and
- develop a districtwide procedure to assess requests for student groups and treat such requests fairly.
To Read the Entire Settlement Agreement Click Here: DOJ