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FARMINGTON — Community members, educators, school administrators and parents filled the Kendall Building on Tuesday to provide public comment and hear how the Davis School District is planning to address challenges relating to racism in the school district.
Davis School District administrators during Tuesday night's board meeting introduced an enhanced partnership to announce a communitywide challenge to increase inclusion and combat discrimination and racism after a federal investigation concluded by the Department of Justice in October 2021 found "serious and widespread racial harassment" of Black and Asian American students.
"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," according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
Additionally, the investigation 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 within the Davis School District.
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.
"We have a moment — a huge assignment in front of us with the DOJ report," Carroll said.
Specifically, the partnership will have regular meetings to discuss goals and progress, work with marginalized communities within Davis County, develop partnerships with Utah branches of the NAACP as well as local interfaith groups, hire an equity consultant for the school district and conduct training with all teachers and staff in the Davis School District.
"As we continue to address significant challenge in the area of equity and discrimination in our schools and communities, we rely on the trust we have established with these leaders. We look to increase engagement on all fronts to eliminate discrimination and increase inclusion and equity in the school district and throughout the county," Davis School District Superintendent Reid Newey said in a news release Tuesday.
Stevenson said that dealing with racism in Davis County "has to be a partnership" between the district and the community.
"I believe we have to talk about the issue of racism and we have to be very open about it — the issues and how this is happening and what we can do to improve it," Stevenson said.
During the public comment period of the meeting, the board heard from members of the community that don't believe that there are issues of racism in Davis County schools as well as those who commended the board for taking the DOJ's findings seriously.
One community member who declined to be named called the DOJ investigation an "intrusion."
"We allowed a corrupt DOJ into our little part of Utah — I'm not comfortable with that. I just think parents have had enough of the woke-ism," they said.
Emily Furse, a parent and educator in Davis School District, said that there is a problem with racism in the district.
"For people who are reading off part of the DOJ findings — maybe you should read all of the things that happened to children of color here in Davis School District — it is heartbreaking, and it is real," Furse said.
Jacqueline Thompson, who 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, was optimistic about the partnership and what it seeks to accomplish.
"I believe that this partnership can be beautiful — we plan to go together and build upon things that have already had a foundation — we will work with our marginalized communities, we will work with all of our communities and our students will be right there with us," Thompson added.
"We've got a lot of exciting things happening."
