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CLEARFIELD — Davis School District on Monday released the first student-created videos that are part of a larger series of videos aimed to improve school culture and climate following a Department of Justice investigation that found "serious and widespread racial harassment" of Black and Asian American students in the district.
The video series, titled "No More, Not Here," features student voices speaking out against bias, hate, discrimination and inequality while promoting unity and encouraging peers to speak out against hurtful speech.
The district has elementary and secondary versions of the videos and new videos will be shown to all students in classrooms on the second Monday of every month across the district's 92 schools. Altogether, there will be a total of five videos shown between Monday and the end of the school year.
The video series was teased during last week's board meeting, where the district announced that it would be partnering with Hill Air Force Base's commander, Col. Jenise Carroll, Utah first lady Abby Cox and Davis County Commissioner Bob Stevenson to address a communitywide challenge to increase inclusion and combat discrimination and racism.
Jacqueline Thompson was appointed assistant superintendent of the Davis School District in November to work on issues related to the school district's settlement with the DOJ.
Since her appointment, Thompson has emphasized that students would be helping the district "lead the way" in the district's goal of creating a more inclusive educational environment.
"We're going to roll out a video series on Monday — it'll be with our student voices in a positive way, saying, 'Let us come together.' They will lead the way with us and be part of the solution," Thompson, an assistant superintendent, said last week.
"There's an issue and I think the first step is raising awareness and just educating other people. I think that video was the first step in that direction," said Hannah Frost, a Northridge High School senior and contributor on the video series.
Seeing students take initiative to write, direct and edit the videos is "amazing," said Caray Long, office of equal opportunity coordinator for Davis School District. "It's a very big deal, I think it speaks a lot of our school district in moving towards listening to student, family and community voices — especially with the Department of Justice and the report that came out.
"We have a big issue here in our district and the students are willing to be a part of that change," Long added. "My hope with the videos is that our students understand that they need to be respectful and kind to one another."
'Disconnect' in the district
Frost, along with other students across the district who worked on and appeared in the video, said they've seen instances of racism "on a daily basis" and that there has been a disconnect among students about whether racism is an issue in the district since the findings of the DOJ report were made public.
"People just aren't willing to acknowledge the fact that because their situation is so good, that's not how other people's situations are," said Woods Cross High senior Hannah Richardson, who is also a contributor on the videos.
After growing up in the district, seeing the Department of Justice report and hearing about other instances of racism and harassment wasn't a shock for Brielle Hall, a Woods Cross High School senior who also worked on the videos.
"I had seen it, it was kind of more like, finally, this is being brought to light after how many years of being ignored. There have been personal experiences of having to deal with racism and then it not being addressed. Seeing other people's reaction, it just kind of reminded me of how far we have to go," Hall said.
Beyond the disconnect, students also said that they see and hear more overt instances of racism within schools.
"With the N-word, people say, 'If I don't say that to somebody who's Black then it's not offensive,' or, 'If I don't say that around a group of people who will be offended by it, then it's not offensive,'" Richardson added. "That's another problem, too — people knowing that it's an issue and knowing who not to say things around but being so comfortable to say it in their friend groups ... knowing that it's wrong."
Additionally, the students emphasized that representation in schools matters,
Power and representation in student voices
Long, along with the students, spoke to the importance of the videos being created by and for students and that seeing their peers speaking about issues of racism has a greater impact than would seeing a staff member or teacher speak about it.
"Seeing it all put together and seeing different backgrounds, it just brought so much more meaning to that — being able to work towards something and then actually see it in motion was really cool," Richardson said.
"I don't think we can find a more strong voice than a student's voice. They're going to tell you exactly what they like, what they don't like, they'll tell you how to fix a problem and it's up to us adults to listen. It's a huge impact for our school district to be able to have those students," Long said.
Additionally, the students emphasized that representation in schools matters. They described not feeling like they could speak up about their individual experiences in certain situations, sensing that no one in their classroom would be able to relate to them.
"When you go somewhere and there's someone you feel like you can relate to, it's so simple to just be yourself and be able to learn and just be who you are when you have that representation. When there's a lack of that, then it's difficult to be able to feel comfortable because there's no one you can relate to. Everyone just wants to be able to be heard and seen and a big part of that is through representation," Hall said.
In creating the video series, the students hope to be that representation for other students who might be struggling with similar thoughts surrounding a lack of representation.
"We really do have a very tall hill to climb, but if we have our students here with us, if we can gather our community members with us, we can all make it together," Long said.
