Former Syracuse students sue school district over alleged sexual harassment

SYRACUSE — Two former Syracuse High students allege in a Title IX suit that school officials knew about sexual harassment allegations related to the distribution of nude images of underage girls and did nothing about it.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday, claims Davis School District didn't do enough to stop the circulation of child sexual abuse material, sexual harassment and cyberbullying through social media accounts.

"This civil rights action arises from the systematic sexual exploitation, harassment and degradation of minor female students at Syracuse High School in Davis County, Utah, and the deliberate, calculated failure of Davis School District and its administrators to protect them," the lawsuit claims.

Attorney Alexander S. Chang announced the federal filing at a press conference Friday, naming Davis School District, four district and school administrators, and multiple former students as defendants. The suit was filed on behalf of two former female students, who were not identified by name because of the sensitive allegations.

A group of male students at Syracuse High are accused of operating "a child sexual abuse material distribution ring through a private Snapchat group called 'Demon Time,' collecting and circulating intimate nude images of their minor female classmates," the lawsuit states.

Specifically, the group gathered non-consensual nude and sexually explicit images of minor female classmates while simultaneously running a public Instagram account, "Syracuse Barstool," that allegedly ranked female students based on "perceived sexual promiscuity."

The accounts are alleged to have superimposed minor girls' faces onto nude bodies in sexually compromising positions, issued rape threats and mocked disabled and transgender students. These social media accounts were "sexually degrading, threatening and dehumanizing content targeting female students by name," the lawsuit states.

Defense attorneys state that despite repeated reports from multiple victims beginning in August 2023, the high school and school district administrators "failed to discipline the perpetrators or protect the victims," a statement from Chang said.

The lawsuit claims that the school officials tried to discourage the student plaintiffs from reporting the experience. The administrators named in the lawsuit were Jed Johansen, the school's then-principal, who Chang said stepped down after a Title IX coordinator recommended he do so; Evette Ashton, a former administrative intern at Syracuse; the district's superintendent Dan Linford and assistant superintendent Chadli Bodily.

The girls' suit claims administrators instead funneled complaints into an unofficial "QR code" Google Form that was "designed to silence victims, actively intimidated a school employee who assisted victims in filing formal reports, blocked internal device scans of the school principal, and prematurely shut down the district's Title IX investigation after orchestrating the principal's resignation to avoid further scrutiny," Chang said.

The administrators "were told about it, repeatedly, by multiple victims, over many months, through every available channel. And they did nothing. They did not suspend the perpetrators. They did not expel them. They did not transfer them. They did not offer the victims any meaningful supportive measures. They did not even follow their own extensive written policies on sexual harassment," the lawsuit said.

The boys were told to delete their accounts, but "When the boys predictably created new accounts and resumed the harassment (this time with vindictive zeal), the administrators feigned surprise and repeated the same empty gesture. When additional victims mustered the courage to come forward, administrators told them the matter had already been 'handled,' accused their parents of 'whipping up the girls,' and telephoned parents to discourage further reporting," the suit states.

Chang in the press conference said that while they don't know how many students were victims, he's representing two of the girls who claim school administrators were more worried about the boys' reputations than the girls' well-being.

"No one was suspended. No one was expelled," Chang said. "No one was even moved out of the classes that they had shared with the girls they had harassed."

The lawsuit seeks damages for economic losses and emotional distress, a declaratory judgment that the district's conduct violated Title IX and the 14th Amendment and an injunction to implement more training and policies to prevent this from happening again.

In a statement to KSL, Davis County School District officials said they take allegations of misconduct "seriously" and are committed to student safety and handling such matters responsibly.

"Davis School District strongly and unequivocally rejects the allegations against district staff and employees and the characterization of their conduct," the statement said.

The school district said its commitment to student safety does not depend on the outcome of any single investigation or legal proceeding.

"Protecting students remains our highest responsibility and foundational to our mission of student success. No allegation, regardless of how strongly we dispute its characterization of events, will distract us from that purpose," the district said.

Contributing: Simone Seikaly, Mary Culbertson

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