FARMINGTON—A group of six current and former Davis High School women's soccer players filed a $10 million lawsuit on Jan. 12 against the Davis School District alleging the district failed to act when the girls reported a team coach for alleged misconduct. The coach is not included in the suit. The lawsuit alleges “‘Institutional betrayal,’ defined as a violation of trust by an institution that harms individuals who depend on it for safety and support.” 

The district faced charges in 2019 after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice found evidence of “severe racial harassment” in the district. The settlement called for several steps the district had to take in order to comply. The district recently completed those requirements.

The district gave the following statement regarding the lawsuit: “Davis School District takes allegations of misconduct seriously and has processes for receiving and reviewing concerns. The District does not comment on pending litigation. This approach protects the integrity of the legal process."

“The case began when these students, who are anonymous, reported their coach and teacher for abusive behaviors that are akin to grooming behaviors, on school grounds and at school events that had been pervasive and ongoing,” said Andy Bondy, an attorney with Parsons Behle & Latimer who is counsel for the plaintiffs. “They went to their administrators at the school which is exactly what they’re supposed to do.”

Every student should report to a responsible adult when something like this happens, he said. “They were – in large part – ignored. The teachers, administrators tended to see this as an issue of complaints about a gung-ho coach or they thought these students were complaining because they’re not getting enough playing time or something like that.”

The lawsuit states that they didn’t investigate the sexual harassment, said Bondy. “It is our understanding that the school basically undertook a very cursory investigation on some of these allegations and no investigation on other ones. They did not take action to end up removing this teacher from his position or otherwise stop him from continuing this behavior. So the students felt that they weren’t being listened to.”

“There were a few red flags everywhere,” said one student plaintiff identified in the case as Jane Doe A. “It’s kind of hard to talk about the actual stuff he did, but the main reason we’re filing this lawsuit is not actually about what the coach was doing. It’s about how we went and complained to the district and to the school and they did nothing about it and that led us to be targeted and the targeting led us to bullying from other girls.”

Jane Doe A said that they kept complaining about it every time it happened. “It kept going on and on and it got so bad it finally led to all the girls being cut from the soccer team.”

The hardest part probably is that these weren’t just random kids, she said. “They were my best friends that I’ve been playing soccer with for two years. I think they liked the coach and wanted to play for him. He has a reputation of winning and when you’re on a winning team you want to please him so that you can win.”

That was the culture of Davis High, said Jane Doe A. “You had to put up with this behavior in order to win. And the winning overtook how uncomfortable it made us.”

“When they came forward with these things it kind of activated us as parents,” said her mother. “We knew we had to do something. We knew this wasn’t appropriate. That’s when originally we just went to the school and honestly we thought it would be handled appropriately and we thought it would definitely be kept confidential.”

Anytime someone makes an allegation about anything sexual confidentiality is vital, the mother said. “We did not experience that at all. We went in on a Friday and Monday when she (Jane Doe A) went to school a kid from the boys soccer team approached her and asked if she was part of it. You can imagine as a mother we were actually really scared because we realized that they had allowed our daughters’ names to be leaked for whatever reason, whether they intentionally did it or they just were not careful. I don’t know why.”

The lawsuit alleges that the girls were bullied, threatened and in one case attacked by another student. “All of the bullying and harassment happened throughout my junior year,” Jane Doe A said. “Then we went to tryouts. It was a disaster in itself. It was terrible. The environment was horrible. I watched one of them get shoved and she was on the ground and she got kicked by a girl. I would come home with bruises on my legs.”

“The reason we feel so passionate about it is we’re telling kids in elementary school to find a trusted adult to ask for help,” said her mother. “The school district is putting themselves out there as someone who can be trusted. Ultimately that’s what we would like (with the lawsuit) is to see that they can be trusted to help people.”

Kids need to be able to speak up and not be afraid of retaliation, she said. “So hopefully that can change. That is our hope.”