FARMINGTON—The mission of the Davis School District Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) is to make sure kids feel safe at school and that they belong. Ben Hill was recently made the director over the OEO and his focus is the same – to ensure that students have a good experience at school. 

“My goal is to lessen the cases of harassment,” said Hill. “Even though the district has been released from the Department of Justice (DOJ) settlement (2021) our mission remains the same to restore the students’ experience and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”

The focus is on training and educating students and teachers, he said. “They need to know what the policy is. They need to know why what they’re doing is harmful. Even when there is a correction we always focus on education.”

Every student and teacher is trained on anti-harassment policy, said Hill. “We also send it out to parents and guardians.”

Hill has been in education for 21 years and taught in Portland, Oregon before moving to Utah in 2009. He has been Assistant Director in the OEO for two years prior to becoming director. 

Students have constitutional civil rights through the 14th Amendment, said Hill. “We make sure their civil rights are protected. We take this very seriously.”

On a typical day, Hill said the OEO might receive 14 complaints. “Sometimes they can be handled at the school.”

Other complaints will be investigated for violation of policy, he said. “For both the complainant and respondent we conduct interviews and determine if it actually rises to targeted harassment. We will reach a conclusion within 10 days.”

 Hill said they refer to the students as complainant and respondent rather than victim or perpetrator. “Those terms are labeling kids. We just use the complainant and respondent to identify who is who when it comes to the complaint. We make sure the parents or guardians know what is going on at school and keep them informed so they’re not surprised.”

The main tool for reporting harassment is on the homepage of every school, said Hill. “We educate kids on how they can find it. It’s the Harassment, Discrimination Reporting System (HDRS) or they can go directly to an administrator at their school and make a complaint. The HDRS gets directly reported to our office. Students are more likely to report if they know something is going to be done about it.”

Every school has a cultural liaison who investigates on the ground and sends the facts to our office, Hill said. “The school coordinator looks at the evidence and makes the decision.”

Outside of his work with the district, Hill is part of an acoustic duo “North of Nowhere” with retiring Assistant Principal John Zurbuchen. He’s also part of the band “Principal Distraction” made up of administrators from all over the district.

“It’s been a fun way to get to know John and not just doing this work,” said Hill. “It’s also been fun to get out and creatively express ourselves.”

Hill said he’s been involved in music since he was a kid. “I was in a rock band in high school and a touring band in college. When Bryan Bowles (former superintendent) said it had always been his dream to have a district band that could play at district events we decided to put one together.”

It’s been a lot of fun, he said. “John and I share a love of music. It’s unique because John is at retirement age and I’m in my 40s. We play 60s and 70s music and 90s to early 2000s. John can retire from the district but he can’t retire from the band – it’s too much fun.”

It’s really humbling and a privilege to be in this position, Hill said of his new appointment. “I want students to have the best experience possible so they can reach their full potential. I love the work and love what I do. It really is for the kids.”