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FARMINGTON — Davis School District, focus of a critical federal report in 2021 on racial harassment issues, now faces a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee hired to help the district address race matters.
Joscelin Thomas filed a lawsuit against the district on Tuesday saying she faced racial discrimination as an employee in violation of federal law. She also says her federal rights of equal protection as an employee were violated, and she seeks unspecified unspecified punitive damages, reinstatement to her job and other compensation.
"Dr. Thomas is a Black woman. From the beginning of her employment, Dr. Thomas was treated differently than her lighter-skinned and non-Black co-workers and was subject to a hostile work environment by her co-workers," reads the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
The lawsuit describes a series of issues, slights and problems Thomas says she faced with co-workers and supervisors throughout her employment of about a year starting in June 2022. It comes as the district beefs up its efforts to handle harassment and discrimination complaints brought by students in response to the critical 2021 U.S. Department of Justice report.
"Defendants subjected Dr. Thomas to disparate treatment when they denied her adequate training, held her performance to a higher standard than her non-Black and lighter-skinned co-workers, and disciplined her for the same 'unprofessional behavior' that her non-Black and lighter-skinned coworkers were permitted to exhibit," the lawsuit states. Thomas worked as district coordinator for the district's Office of Equal Opportunity, helping investigate student complaints of harassment and discrimination lodged by district students.
The district hasn't yet formally responded to the suit and didn't offer a comment on the litigation. In a statement, however, the district emphasized that it is against discrimination.
"Davis School District administrators, teachers and staff stand firmly against any form of harassment or discrimination that affects a child's learning experience in our schools. Our primary duty and responsibility is to create a safe environment for every child, employee and patron," it reads.
The statement continues, noting the district's "robust harassment and discrimination policy," updated last August. As part of its efforts to address the issues raised by the U.S. Department of Justice, the district created a new online system students can use to report charges of harassment and discrimination.
"It allows any individual to anonymously report any incident in which they believe someone was harassed or discriminated against. Every report that is received is fully investigated by a trained team within the district's Office of Equal Opportunity," it reads.
The 2021 U.S. Department of Justice report, cited by Thomas in her lawsuit, provided a scathing view of Davis School District's handling of complaints of racial discrimination and harassment. The probe covered 2015 to 2020.
"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," reads an Oct. 21, 2021, press release from the federal agency. Federal investigators "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."
Since then, Davis School District has taken numerous steps in response, implementing programming meant to raise awareness and understanding about race issues among students, creating the system to report discrimination and harassment complaints and more.
In her suit, Thomas said the Office of Equal Opportunity was created under the settlement agreement between the district and the Department of Justice. Among the issues she raises in making her case were denial of training opportunities her colleagues received, condescending and brusque treatment, lacking mentorship from assistant superintendent Fidel Montero, also named in the suit, and more.
On one occasion, a co-worker "instructed her to clean up trash" during what was supposed to be a training opportunity, according to the lawsuit. Thomas also charged that she wasn't addressed as Dr. Thomas though she has a doctorate. "The district consistently refused to acknowledge Dr. Thomas' academic achievements and undercut her qualifications by frequently failing to address her by her appropriate title," the lawsuit reads.
District officials ultimately opted not to renew a provisional one-year employment contract with Thomas, though they offered no reason for the decision, according to the lawsuit. She was placed on administrative leave last May after she raised charges of racial discrimination with a human resources official, that extended through the last two months of her one-year contract.
Correction: In an earlier version, Joscelin Thomas' first name was incorrectly spelled Jocelin.
