SALT LAKE CITY — A loose coalition of groups urged Utah legislators on Wednesday to toughen ethics requirements for school boards to rein in claimed bad behavior by elected education officials around the state.

The group reported a smorgasbord of controlling, abusive and secretive actions that rogue school board members allegedly have committed up and down the state. James Evans, a former state senator and former Utah Republican Party chairman, said those supporting an ethics crackdown “range from the far left to the far right,” signaling that abuses have victimized people regardless of political ideology.

Evans proposed a change in state law that would allow an aggrieved school constituent to file an ethics complaint to an existing state commission. He said local school ethics boards exist, but officials can bottle up such complaints with no level of appeal.

Nichole Mason, of Bountiful, president of Utah Parents United, told the Education Interim Committee that she was treated arbitrarily and threatened with police action during a Davis School District board meeting on July 13, 2021. She said she questioned a command to keep attendees’ chairs 3 feet apart, despite COVID-19 restrictions having been lifted.

She asked a Farmington police officer stationed in the room why she had to obey what she perceived to be a wrongheaded edict, and he said, “The code (state law) is vague and they can do whatever they want.”

Davis School District spokesperson Christopher Williams had no immediate comment about the Utah Parents United complaints but said a statement would be issued later.

In an interview before the meeting, Mason said she also favored a tightening of the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act to prevent officials from denying and egregiously limiting public comment, participation and openness.

“The problem is that certain school board members have come to see that they can do whatever they want and so they do whatever they want,” she said. “What recourse do I have?”

Mason said her current concerns regarding school board issues include opposition to “pornography in the schools, curriculum, and the teaching of divisive ideologies.” The latter, she acknowledged, was a reference to subject matter that opponents have described as “critical race theory.”  Opposition has mushroomed to any teaching along the lines of The New York Times’ “1619 Project” about the history of slavery.

But Mason said school board members’ ethical boundaries must be strengthened so transparent debates of all issues may be aired with full public participation.

Jeanetta Williams, NAACP Salt Lake City Branch president, echoed concerns about openness in school board dealings. She charged that the Salt Lake school board is “dysfunctional and they are micromanaging everything.”

She advocated more training for school board members on explicit and implicit biases, which she said allow racial discrimination to fester. It’s not just a Wasatch Front problem, she said, noting Emery County officials’ refusal to recognize the Juneteenth holiday and their discussions about not honoring the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Jeanetta Williams did praise the Davis school board for “doing the right thing” in complying with a U.S. Justice Department settlement in 2021 over what federal investigators said was “serious and widespread racial harassment” of Black and Asian students. The district has been implementing sweeping steps to correct the problems.

Utah School Boards Association officials testified in support of working on any state law improvements regarding board ethics. “We all want ethics in our districts and workplaces,” said association President Lexi Cunningham. “All boards have codes of conduct and ethics policies. They are very aware of that.”

State Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, said school boards sometimes move to restrict activity at meetings because the gatherings can devolve into “screaming” and “they are scary.” She urged participants to learn the rules ahead of time “and respect the rules as well.”

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