WASHINGTON TERRACE — Five Weber High School students reached social media feeds across the country four years ago for a video in which they seemed to be shouting a racial slur. The juniors and seniors, three of whom were cheerleaders, drew the Weber School District into the national spotlight.

In the video, the students appeared to be saying a seemingly nonsensical phrase played backward, which resulted in the words “f—— n——.” As national media outlets covered the fallout, people and advocacy groups — including the NAACP — called on the district to discipline the students.

Following an investigation, the district announced it had “taken appropriate action against the students” but did not specify what that action was, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

After the Weber School District Board of Education’s approval of a new student discrimination and harassment policy Wednesday night, investigations into such incidents — and discriminatory behavior that remains out of the public eye — will have a specific process. And administrators now have access to a clear definition of what the district considers discrimination.

Of the district’s seven board members, six voted in favor of the new policy and one — Janis Christensen — chose to abstain for unspecified reasons.

The changes came as the district was prompted by a Department of Education change to Title IX regulations that went into effect last August to reevaluate its harassment policy, according to Weber School District legal counsel Heidi Alder. The new rule, which raised the standard that had to be met in order for educators to take action against sexual harassment claims, required that the district make a separate Title IX policy and investigation process.

“We decided it would be a good time to take a look at the policy overall,” Alder said. So as it created a Title IX policy, known as policy 4121, it also bulked up its rules regarding all forms of harassment and discrimination, which are now enshrined in policy 4120.

The 13-page policy defines discrimination as “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different individuals on the grounds of race, age, or sex, including sexual orientation or gender identity.” It goes on to give eight examples of what discrimination might be, and then defines and does the same for discriminatory harassment.

“Discriminatory harassment that denies a person access to education programs or activities may also constitute a civil rights violation,” the policy reads.

The list of examples of behavior that would be subject to disciplinary action is broad. It includes threatening or intimidating conduct on the basis of a protected identity; use of discriminatory language; the creation of any material that contains comments or stereotypes aimed at degrading students or members of protected classes; making jokes that may be considered offensive to a protected group; wearing clothing that displays words, pictures or symbols that are offensive or degrading; and mocking someone’s speech, clothes, hairstyle or customs on the basis of their protected identity.

While students participating in this kind of discriminatory harassment at school will almost certainly end up in the principal’s office, those doing it outside of school — like the Weber High students, who filmed the video at a location off the school’s campus — may be disciplined as well. According to the policy, that is determined based on the degree to which it disrupts the educational environment and what is described as the “nexus,” or connection, to the school.

The amended policy represents a significant development in addressing harassment within the district’s schools. Previously, the policy only gave a basic definition of discrimination and said, “A substantiated charge of harassment against a student or employee shall result in disciplinary action.”

“Our previous policy was just a real skeletal recitation of federal law,” Alder said, adding, “and our process was the same no matter what the allegation was.”

Within the policy, the district has also now outlined specific processes for responding to both allegations of discrimination and discriminatory harassment.

When a student feels they have been discriminated against at school, they or their parent are encouraged to submit a written complaint to the principal. If that discrimination is based on sex, they will instead report to the district’s Title IX coordinator.

Both discrimination and discriminatory harassment will be investigated by administrators, and findings on discrimination may be appealed. When discrimination is found to have happened, the policy says, “WSD will take prompt and effective steps to remedy the discriminatory conduct and eliminate it from WSD’s programs and activities.”

If an administrator determines a student perpetrated discriminatory harassment, administrators “will teach students why the conduct is prohibited,” document the incident as discriminatory harassment in their student file and take further action to eliminate such behavior, including restorative justice practices and further education within the classroom.

Multiple advocacy groups that respond to instances of discrimination were contacted by the Standard-Examiner for comment on the policy change. Each said they had not yet seen the policy so they were not immediately able to offer their thoughts.

The newly implemented policy does not address potential discriminatory harassment by teachers or other district employees. Alder said the district is currently working on separate rules to address such behavior from faculty or staff.

That will cover incidents like one that came to light in February, in which a Sand Ridge Junior High School librarian read the N-word from a book. A student posted a video recording of her saying the word.

“When we do draft an employee policy, we do want to spell out in that policy certain words that are prohibited in the district,” Alder said. “Hopefully it will give employees an understanding of what they can and can’t do or what they should and should not do when they’re, for example, reading literature.”

Image supplied, Weber School District