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- Davis School District has fulfilled a 2021 U.S. Justice Department agreement calling on the system to address racial harassment.
- Federal monitoring has ended, but the district will continue antidiscrimination measures implemented along the way, including an online reporting system.
- A federal probe completed in 2021 found instances of "severe, pervasive and objectively offensive race-based harassment" in the district.
FARMINGTON — Davis School District has met the terms of a 2021 accord with the U.S. Justice Department to address racial harassment and discrimination in the system and will no longer be monitored by federal officials.
A Feb. 28 Department of Justice letter to district officials praised them for their "urgent and sustained implementation of the antidiscrimination remedies required by the settlement agreement." The settlement agreement is the Oct. 20, 2021, document outlining the supervised steps district officials had to take to remedy the harassment and discrimination issues. Last week's letter said the federal monitoring that resulted has now ended.
A Davis School District spokesman said Wednesday that the varied measures implemented as part of the district's efforts, including an online harassment reporting system, will continue.
"We understand we have a long journey ahead to achieve the culture and climate we seek for all our students, but we are encouraged by the voices of our students who tell us they see improvements," Superintendent Dan Linford said in a statement this week. "We have confidence that the systems we have built will ensure our accountability in upholding our students' constitutional rights."
News of the two-year Department of Justice probe into Davis School District emerged Oct. 21, 2021, casting the system in a harsh light. Prompted by complaints from the public, federal investigators reviewed school records for the 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years, visited the district, met with district officials and teachers and interviewed students and community members.
"DOJ found severe, pervasive and objectively offensive race-based harassment in schools across the district. Parents and students informed DOJ that white students repeatedly called Black students the N-word despite the district's knowledge and without consequence," reads a Sept. 15, 2021, letter to the district's legal rep. White students also called Asian American students "pejorative slurs," the department found, and Black students were subjected to harsher discipline than white students for similar offenses.
In response to the scathing report, Davis School District officials, monitored by the Department of Justice, launched a broad-based initiative to address the issues, and its efforts are expected to continue. The district, which encompasses all of Davis County, is currently the second-largest system in the state with nearly 70,000 students as of the start of the 2024-25 school year. Broken down demographically, 854 students were Black, 789 were Asian, 9,537 were Hispanics and 54,841 were non-Hispanic white people, according to Utah Board of Education numbers.
Among the key changes since 2021 have been increased training of staff on race issues and educational outreach efforts to students. Significantly, the district has launched the Office of Equal Opportunity to foster a sense of belonging among all students and created an online system to report incidents — the Harassment and Discrimination Reporting System. Multicultural councils made up of students have been formed in junior high and high schools.
The Department of Justice settlement agreement aimed to address "widespread racial harassment and other discrimination against students," reads the Feb. 28 letter from the federal officials. "The Davis School District has remedied those conditions through implementing the settlement agreement's requirements."
Davis School District officials, however, have "an ongoing obligation" to stop race-based discrimination and respond to complaints of racial harassment, the federal officials said.
In his statement, Linford alluded to the concerted effort put forward by Davis School District officials in response to the 2021 report. "We hope to be a model of what is possible when earnest leaders and communities come together to improve the lives of children," he said.
