Black woman hired to probe racism at Utah school district after bullied autistic girl, 10, killed herself says staff racially abused HER as she investigated

A Black woman hired to investigate racial harassment after a 10-year-old student committed suicide claims she too was discriminated against.

Joscelin Thomas was a coordinator in the Davis School District’s Equal Opportunity Office in northern Utah, where he reviewed student and parent complaints.

She was part of a wave of new hires in 2022 after Black student Izzy Tichenor committed suicide due to brutal racist bullying from classmates — but now says she faced racist bullying while trying to investigate the district’s problems.

Other children regularly called Izzy the N-word, told her she smelled and teased her for being autistic, according to a lawsuit filed by the family.

The U.S. Department of Justice, in response to an investigation that found racism was widespread, ordered the district in a settlement agreement to create an office charged with investigating and handling reports of racial harassment.

But Thomas alleged in a federal lawsuit that district staff instead racially discriminated against her, filed false complaints and then pushed her out.

Her lawsuit alleges they treated her “as if she were stupid,” accused her of a substandard work ethic and denied her training and mentorship opportunities offered to her white colleagues.

“From the beginning of her employment, Dr. Thomas was treated differently than her lighter-skinned and non-Black colleagues and was exposed to a hostile work environment,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit names the school district, Assistant Superintendent Fidel Montero, HR Director Suzi Jensen and an outside consultant, Heidi Alder, as defendants.

Thomas was one of those charged with investigating the anonymous reports and was hired as a district coordinator on a team of more junior coordinators.

However, she was only given one subordinate, while the other two district coordinators were given two each, and was still given a greater workload.

She claimed they “treated her like a subordinate, rather than a colleague” and regularly demanded she do rough work for them.

Thomas was part of a wave of new hires in 2022 after black student Izzy Tichenor (pictured) committed suicide due to brutal racist bullying by classmates

About a month into her employment, a coworker handed her a pile of trash and ordered her to pick up the trash during what was supposed to be an opportunity for Thomas to network with other administrators, the complaint said.

The coworker became “enraged” when Thomas refused, the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit describes how the same coworker interrupted a meeting with their boss to yell at her for something she didn’t do.

Their boss, the director, made them attend a mediation, during which the coworker “acknowledged that she was in charge of Dr. Thomas when it was not her job to do so,” the lawsuit says.

The colleague also allegedly “admitted to harboring a grudge against Dr. Thomas because she felt Dr. Thomas did not have the same ‘work ethic’.”

However, the medication changed very little and Thomas’ colleagues continued to “blame her for things that were not her fault.”

Shocking racist abuse in Utah school district

Thomas was hired in response to a 2021 federal investigation that revealed widespread racial harassment of Black and Asian American students in the district just north of Salt Lake City.

The findings include hundreds of documented uses of the N-word and other derogatory swear words over a five-year period.

The civil rights investigation found that black students, who make up about 1 percent of the district’s 74,000 students, were punished more severely than their white peers for similar behavior.

District officials admitted to federal investigators that years of discipline data showed a trend in which staff treated students of color differently than white students, but the district had done nothing to correct the disparities, federal investigators said.

Several black students had also told researchers that their white peers called them monkeys, made monkey noises at them in class and told them their skin looked like dirt or feces.

Inappropriate comments about slavery and lynching sometimes went unpunished, and black students recalled their peers telling them, “Go pick cotton” and “You are my slave.”

Izzy’s mother and sister visited her grave last year

The district’s racial problems came to a head just two weeks later when Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor, a Black and autistic fifth-grader, committed suicide after her family said she was relentlessly bullied by her classmates at Foxboro Elementary School in North Salt Lake .

The 10-year-old’s parents blamed her death on what they called an inadequate response by school officials, who they said were aware of the bullying but did nothing to stop it.

Tichenor, the only black student in her class, had children who regularly called her the N-word, told her they smelled bad and teased her because she was autistic, according to a lawsuit filed by the family.

District officials admitted last year that school staff abused the girl and agreed to pay her family a $2 million settlement after initially defending how it handled the bullying allegations.

They also announced a separate $200,000 settlement shared between three black students who said they faced racial harassment on a daily basis.

The school district updated its harassment policy following the federal investigation and Tichenor’s death, and it launched an anonymous online platform for any student, parent or staff member to report incidents of harassment or discrimination, the district said.

Thomas also alleged in her lawsuit harassment by Alder, who was brought in as part of the agreement with the DoJ.

Alder’s job was to review harassment policies and procedures, establish employee training programs, monitor the district’s progress and make recommendations to help the district fulfill the agreement.

She wasn’t supposed to be involved in the cases, but Thomas claimed she changed the findings of an investigation she was given for review last February.

A black child claimed that a student teacher told them, “I don’t appeal to monkeys, I appeal to students” when they raised their hands to answer a question and said, “ooh, ooh, I, I know’.

Alder rescinded the complaint review finding that the student teacher violated the district’s racial harassment policy because she believed “the black student was making ‘ape-like noises.’

Later, Thomas’ boss – who gave her “consistently good feedback” – told her he had received a “letter of concern” from Alder.

The consultant accused her work of lacking “the thoroughness necessary to draw reasonable conclusions” and of swearing in the office – which Thomas said was common among all staff.

Fidel Montero, assistant superintendent of the school district, was a defendant in the lawsuit, which alleges that he told Thomas that she was being investigated for “ethical, moral or professional conduct” and that her colleagues “felt unsafe at her in the office’.

Thomas said she scheduled a meeting with Jensen a few months before her one-year contract expired on June 30 to discuss the discrimination she had experienced.

Fifteen minutes before the meeting, she was taken to Assistant Superintendent Montero’s office and placed on administrative leave.

Montero told her she was under investigation for “ethical, moral or professional conduct” and that her coworkers “felt unsafe in her office,” the lawsuit alleged.

He sent her a letter 10 days later claiming she had made offensive comments about her coworkers, which Thomas’ lawsuit alleged were “completely false or significantly misinterpreted.”

Thomas attempted to meet with HR director Suzi Jensen to discuss her alleged harassment

After two months of administrative leave, her contract expired and she never learned the outcome of the investigation.

The letter sent to her informing her that her contract would not be renewed referred to her as ‘Mrs Thomas’, ignoring her doctorate degree.

“The district consistently denied Dr.’s academic performance. Thomas and undermined her qualifications by frequently failing to address her by her proper title,” the lawsuit alleged.

Thomas’ attorney, Katie Panzer, said Thomas’ experiences raise questions about whether the district has made any real effort to change its culture.

“Our hope is that through our efforts to address the violation of Dr. Thomas, the district will be forced to make systemic changes,” she said.

‘The district has a duty to provide both students and employees with a safe environment, free from racial discrimination. We would like to see them actually fulfill that obligation.’

The school district declined to comment on Thomas’ allegations, citing ongoing legal action.

“The administrators, teachers and staff of the Davis School District firmly oppose any form of harassment or discrimination that impacts a child’s educational experience in our schools,” the report said.

‘Our primary task and responsibility is to create a safe environment for every child, employee and patron.’