Davis School District

Davis School District is a school district serving Davis County, Utah, United States. Headquartered in the county seat of Farmington, it is the 61st largest school district in the United States and the 2nd largest school district in Utah with 72,987 students attending Davis schools as of 2019. It is located almost entirely within Davis County. Students attend elementary school from kindergarten to 6th grade, junior high from 7th grade-9th grade, and high school from 10th grade-12th grade.

History The school district was founded in 1911 with 2,730 students attending 31 neighborhood schools across Davis County. The inaugural school board member and president was future Utah governor Henry Blood.

In 2006, the Davis School District received recognition for having the nation's top graduation rate among the 100 largest school districts in the United States, according to a survey by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Also in 2006, the superintendent, Dr. W. Bryan Bowles was awarded superintendent of the year in Utah.

For the 2016–17 school year, Reid Newey moved from the Weber School District to become the superintendent of DSD. As of 2026, the current superintendent is Dan Linford.

Controversies and Lawsuits

American Civil Liberties Union Lawsuit (2012) In 2012, district administrators were sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for deciding to remove the book In Our Mothers’ House by children's author Patricia Polacco from the shelves of their elementary school libraries due to its content about lesbian mothers. The district returned the book to shelves a few months later.

Lawsuit Against a School District Bus Driver and Department of Justice Investigation (2019) In 2019, a Davis school bus driver closed the bus doors on the backpack of a boy, pinning him outside the bus and dragging him forward over 150 feet. His family sued the driver, alleging this was done intentionally to racially harass the boy, who was biracial. They pointed to previous instances of racial harassment by the driver and attempts at retaliation for reporting him. The district settled the suit in 2021 for $62,500 and acknowledged the racial assault. The incident also sparked a three-year investigation into the Davis School District by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). That investigation found that racial harassment was widespread in the school district and hundreds of complaints were intentionally unaddressed. Black and Asian students in the district faced a hostile environment where they were subjected to racial slurs, and Davis School District employees responded to complaints by telling them "not to be so sensitive or [making] excuses for harassing students by explaining that they were 'not trying to be racist'". The DOJ required the district to create a plan to address the systemic problems moving forward which included changing its policies, offering more training, and creating an equity department for racial discrimination complaints with a director that is approved by the federal government.

Department of Justice Settlement (2021-2025) In October of 2021 after a three-year investigation, the Department of Justice publicly determined that Davis School District "had failed to respond appropriately to known harassment of Black and Asian-American students, including frequent racial slurs and epithets, threats of violence, and physical assault by staff and students."https://le.utah.gov/interim/2023/pdf/00004625.pdf They used Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make the District enter into a settlement to resolve these issues.Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of any protected class in any institution that receives federal funding (like the Davis School District).

Lawsuit from death because of racially motivated bullying (2021) In 2021, a ten-year-old black girl who attended the District's Foxboro Elementary School died by suicide due to racist bullying, sparking national outcry. An independent investigation that was commissioned by the district found that staff had joined in on the mistreatment of the girl. In 2023, her family was awarded $2 million in a civil rights settlement, to be paid by Davis School District.

Removal of the Bible and other books from some schools (2022) In 2023, the district removed the Bible from its elementary and middle schools while keeping it in high schools after a committee reviewed the scripture in response to a parental complaint. The district has removed other titles, including Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and John Green’s Looking for Alaska, following a 2022 state law requiring districts to include parents in decisions over what constitutes "sensitive material." The ban was lifted a few weeks later.

Lawsuit by staff member investigating discrimination per DOJ Agreement (2024) In 2022, Joscelin Thomas was hired by Davis School District per the 2021 DOJ agreement to investigate instances of racial harassment that were reported but not acted on by the District. In January 2024, she alleged that she was discriminated against multiple times, including wrongful termination, because of her skin color. The District and former employee settled for $143,558 out of court later that year.

Lawsuit by 6 former Davis High School female soccer players alleging "institutional betrayal" (2026) In January 2026, 6 former members of the Davis High Girls' Soccer team sued the District over its mishandling of grooming and sexual harassment complaints regarding their head coach. During his tenure at Davis High, head coach Soulivanh "Souli" Phongsavath faced accusations of grooming and sexual harassment from multiple former and current players. The mishandling of these complaints led to additional harassment by students and staff.

Allegations against the head coach:

Encouraging the female players to make music video recreations wearing swimsuits, sometimes on school grounds Judging female players in dance competitions at pool parties he attended Engaging in sexually charged one-on-one conversations with female players in person, via text and Snapchat, including details of his former work as a stripper

Allegations against the Davis School District:

Leaking the identities of the girls who brought allegations against Souli Refusing to intervene when retaliation started because of their leaked identities

Allegations against Dan Linford, District Superintendent:

Dismissing the above allegations against the head coach as "not concerning to him or to the district" Conflict of interest in dismissing these allegations, given that his son plays for a club team Souli coaches

Communities Davis School District, which has the same boundaries as that of Davis County, serves the following communities: - Text list

Bountiful Centerville Clearfield Clinton Farmington Fruit Heights Hill Air Force Base (most of the land area) Kaysville Layton North Salt Lake South Weber Sunset Syracuse West Bountiful West Point Woods Cross

Schools The following schools are part of Davis School District:

Elementary schools

Adams Elementary - Layton Adelaide Elementary - Bountiful Antelope Elementary - Clearfield Bluff Ridge Elementary - Syracuse Boulton Elementary - Bountiful Bountiful Elementary - Bountiful Buffalo Point Elementary - Syracuse H.C. Burton Elementary - Kaysville Canyon Creek Elementary - Farmington Centerville Elementary - Centerville Clinton Elementary - Clinton Columbia Elementary - Kaysville Cook Elementary - Syracuse Creekside Elementary - Kaysville Crestview Elementary - Layton Doxey Elementary - Sunset Eagle Bay Elementary - Farmington East Layton Elementary - Layton Ellison Park Elementary - Layton Endeavour Elementary - Kaysville Farmington Elementary - Farmington Foxboro Elementary - North Salt Lake Heritage Elementary - Layton Hill Field Elementary - Clearfield Holbrook Elementary - Bountiful Holt Elementary - Clearfield Island View Elementary - West Point Kay's Creek Elementary - Kaysville Kaysville Elementary - Kaysville King Elementary - Layton Knowlton Elementary - Farmington Lakeside Elementary - West Point Layton Elementary - Layton Lincoln Elementary - Layton Meadowbrook Elementary - Bountiful Morgan Elementary - Kaysville Mountain View Elementary - Layton Muir Elementary - Bountiful Oak Hills Elementary - Bountiful Odyssey Elementary - Woods Cross Orchard Elementary - North Salt Lake Parkside Elementary - Clinton Reading Elementary - Centerville Sand Springs Elementary - Layton Snow Horse Elementary - Kaysville South Clearfield Elementary - Clearfield South Weber Elementary - South Weber Stewart Elementary - Centerville Sunburst Elementary - Latyon Sunset Elementary - Sunset Syracuse Elementary - Syracuse Taylor Elementary - Centerville Tolman Elementary - Bountiful Vae View Elementary - Layton Valley View Elementary - Bountiful Wasatch Elementary - Clearfield West Bountiful Elementary - West Bountiful West Clinton Elementary - Clinton West Point Elementary - West Point Whitesides Elementary - Layton Windridge Elementary - Kaysville Woods Cross Elementary - Woods Cross

Junior high schools

Bountiful Junior High School - Bountiful Centennial Junior High School - Kaysville Centerville Junior High School - Centerville Central Davis Junior High School - Layton Fairfield Junior High School - Kaysville Farmington Junior High School - Farmington Horizon Junior High - West Point Kaysville Junior High School - Kaysville Legacy Junior High School - Layton Millcreek Junior High School - Bountiful Mueller Park Junior High School - Bountiful North Davis Junior High School - Clearfield North Layton Junior High School - Layton South Davis Junior High School - Bountiful Sunset Junior High School - Sunset Syracuse Junior High School - Syracuse Shoreline Junior High School - Layton West Point Junior High School - West Point

High schools

Bountiful High School - Bountiful Clearfield High School - Clearfield Davis Connect 7-12 - Layton Davis High School - Kaysville Farmington High School - Farmington Layton High School - Layton Northridge High School - Layton Syracuse High School - Syracuse Viewmont High School - Bountiful Woods Cross High School - Woods Cross

Special schools

Family Enrichment Center - Kaysville Mountain High School - Kaysville Pioneer Adult Rehabilitation Center - Clearfield Renaissance Academy - Kaysville Vista education campus - Farmington

Davis School District

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