SYRACUSE, Utah — A civil rights and Title IX lawsuit filed against the Davis School District, administrators and former students alleges school officials failed to adequately respond after female students at Syracuse High School reported that intimate images of students were being shared among classmates.
Attorney Alexander Chang announced the lawsuit during a press conference Friday morning. Chang said he represents two young women who were students at Syracuse High School.
The lawsuit alleges that in 2023, a group of male students operated a Snapchat group called “Demon Time,” where nude images of girls at the school were collected and circulated.
The suit also alleges some of the same students operated an Instagram account that posted sexually degrading, threatening and dehumanizing content targeting female students by name.
It alleges the Davis School District did little to help the girls after the conduct was reported.
“No one was suspended. No one was expelled, no one was even moved out of the classes that they had shared with the girls who were harassed,” Chang said. “Instead, the boys were told to delete the Instagram account. They made a new one the next day.”
The lawsuit further alleges that about five months after one of Chang’s clients first reported the situation, the former school principal contacted her family and discouraged further reporting.
Chang alleges the principal told the family he was concerned about “ruining their boys’ lives” and their ability to serve religious missions.
The Davis School District strongly disputes the allegations and the lawsuit’s characterization of district employees’ actions.
"Protecting students remains the Davis School District’s highest responsibility and is foundational to our mission of student success," the district said in a statement. "We take allegations of misconduct seriously and remain committed to student safety, accountability, and the fair and responsible handling of such matters.
"Davis School District strongly and unequivocally rejects the allegations against district staff and employees and the characterization of their conduct."
The suit alleges that around February 2024, results of that investigation were returned and confirmed “actionable items” corroborating the existence and operation of the “Demon Time” group and the sharing of intimate images of female students.
FOX 13 News reached out to the Syracuse Police Department for information about the case. The department said it could not provide that information without a case number and that its public information officer would respond early next week.
Chang said the alleged harassment has had a lasting impact on his clients.
“One of my clients has needed years of trauma therapy; she has struggled with thoughts of ending her life, she lost her senior year,” Chang said.
He said his other client also missed a significant portion of her senior year of school.
Chang said he hopes the lawsuit can be resolved within the next year or two.
Former FBI agent Greg Rogers, who spent decades investigating child sexual abuse material, spoke generally about the seriousness of sharing intimate images involving minors.
“It’s increased it radically,” Rogers said of the role of social media. “What younger people, students and others don’t realize is it is distribution of child pornography if you’re sending those pictures around. It’s a federal felony. It’s very, very serious.”