Davis School District launches video effort to chip away at racism
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- Woods Cross High School seniors Hannah Richardson, left, and Brielle Hall speak Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, at Clearfield High School in Clearfield about the Davis School District’s new “No More, Not Here” video series targeting racism.
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- From left, Clearfield High School junior Joshua Flores, Woods Cross High School seniors Hannah Richardson and Brielle Hall and Northridge High School senior Hannah Frost participate in a press event Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, at Clearfield High School in Clearfield to unveil the Davis School District’s new “No More, Not Here” video series targeting racism.
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- A screen grab from one of the Davis School District’s new videos targeting racism, part of the “No More, Not Here” video series, unveiled Monday, Jan. 10, 2022.
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- Caray Long, the Davis School District’s office of equal opportunity coordinator, talks Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, at Clearfield High School in Clearfield at the unveiling of a new video series targeting racism in the district, called “No More, Not Here.”
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- From left, Northridge High School senior Hannah Frost, Woods Cross High School seniors Hannah Richardson and Brielle Hall and Clearfield High School junior Joshua Flores participate in a press event Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, at Clearfield High School in Clearfield to unveil the Davis School District’s new “No More, Not Here” video series targeting racism.
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- Northridge High School senior Hannah Frost, left, and Clearfield High School junior Joshua Flores talk Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, at Clearfield High School in Clearfield at a press event unveiling the Davis School District’s new “No More, Not Here” video series targeting racism.
CLEARFIELD — When the U.S. Department of Justice released a critical report last fall finding that certain minority students in the Davis School District had faced widespread harassment over the years, it didn’t surprise Brielle Hall.
“It wasn’t a shock because growing up in the district I had seen that, I had felt that,” said the Woods Cross High School senior.
In a way, she felt a measure of relief. “I was like, ‘Finally, this is being put out,'” she said.
Not everyone in the district seems to agree there’s an issue, though, and now Hall, Davis School District administrators and other students across the district are teaming up to get the message out — the district has a race issue and needs to grapple with it.
“I just want it to be known that there is a problem,” said Hannah Richardson, also a Woods Cross High School senior. “We need people to understand this is an issue. We want people willing to learn about it.”
To that end, the district on Monday launched a video initiative, “No More, Not Here,” in a bid to chip away at the race problem. Teachers in every classroom in the district’s 92 schools played a video to students touching on issues of race and inclusiveness and four more videos are planned in the months to come.
“I think the first step is raising awareness,” said Hannah Frost, a senior at Northridge High School in Layton. Frost and Richardson, among many other students across the district, helped craft the video, which features students reading messages focused on inclusiveness and tolerance.
Frost, Richardson and Hall gathered Monday at Clearfield High School to discuss the initiative with the media, together with Caray Long, the district’s office of equal opportunity coordinator. Long said administrators crafted a rough script for the initial videos — one geared to elementary students, the other geared to secondary students — and then students fine-tuned them in a bid to make sure their voices came through. Students across the district read the messages in the videos.
“We have a big issue here in our district and the students are willing to be part of the solution. It’s great,” Long said. Four more videos geared to each age level are forthcoming, probably containing “skill lessons” for students aimed at promoting inclusivity, said Hailey Higgins, a district spokesperson.
The Justice Department probe, released last October, documented hundreds of cases of racial incidents, including use of derogatory comments and even physical assaults against students of color at dozens of Davis School District schools. Within the district, 81.7% of students are non-Hispanic whites while 18.3% of them are students of color, according to state data for the 2021-2022 school year. Just 797 students, 1.1% of the total, are Black.
The video initiative is actually an offshoot of a partnership district, Davis County and Hill Air Force Base officials announced last week meant to target racism and discrimination.
“Fight against discrimination, hate, inequality, injustice and racism,” says a student in the video for elementary kids.
“No more, not here,” says the next student.
“Because if we all take the lead together, hate falls behind,” says a third.
The messages are fairly straightforward, but Richardson and the other students at Monday’s press event said not everyone takes them to heart. In the wake of the Justice Department report last fall, Richardson remembers hearing from some students who were skeptical that the sorts of issues the feds uncovered were actually occurring, at least to a significant degree.
Some students, Richardson said, hadn’t seen the sort of incidents outlined in the report firsthand so their attitude was “it can’t be real.”
However, Joshua Flores, a Clearfield High School junior, said racially charged comments don’t always have to include the N-word or other blatantly derogatory terms.
“Just because you’re not saying the word doesn’t mean you’re not meaning it,” he said. Likewise, just because you don’t see racial incidents firsthand, he said, “doesn’t mean it’s not happening.”
Future videos are to be released the second Monday of each month. Long hopes they spark teacher-led discussions in each classroom in the district.
The initial videos, Flores said, show “everyone has a place here as an equal.”
The Justice Department is requiring that the district hire consultants to review its harassment policies and create training programs to help staff spot instances of racial harassment, among other things.