Judge partially dismisses civil rights claim against Davis School District

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FARMINGTON — A federal judge dismissed a claim against the Davis School District from three Black students who allege the district has not complied with a court settlement dictating the district take steps to end racial harassment in its schools.

The Davis School District entered a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice last year after an investigation from the department found evidence of "severe, pervasive and objectively offensive race‐based harassment," court documents state.

Under the settlement agreement, the district promised to "take all necessary and reasonable steps" to end racial harassment, remedy its effects, respond to and track racial incidents and eliminate any racially hostile environments within its schools, programs, and activities.

The student plaintiffs, however, argued the district has not held up its end of the bargain. They alleged that, notwithstanding the settlement, they continued to experience racial harassment by other students on a daily basis, including being called racial slurs, hearing other students make monkey sounds at them on the bus, having other students touch their hair without permission; and having students ask for a "pass" to freely use racially derogatory expletives toward them.

The students also made allegations of specific incidents involving discriminatory treatment from district employees.

District Court Judge Dale A. Kimball ruled partially in favor of the district, which argued the three students are not third‐party beneficiaries to the settlement agreement and, as thus, not entitled to make a breach of contract claim.

"Recognizing a third‐party beneficiary status for individual students would open the door for each individual Black or Asian American student to bring an individual breach of contract claim, even if there were no harm to them," Kimball wrote in his order of dismissal. "Allowing individual students to bring suit for violations of the settlement agreement would lead to untenable results that the parties could not reasonably have intended."

Kimball did not dismiss a claim from the students that the district had intentionally discriminated against them in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. He also sided against the district, which argued that claims from one of the students should be dismissed because they are no longer enrolled in the district.