UTAH COUNTY — For months, the FOX 13 Investigates team has been trying to report on teachers who have already been disciplined by Alpine School District in the last two school years.
The district is now trying to charge close to $400 in fees for access to records related to teachers who were disciplined for grooming, boundary violations, sexual misconduct, and violence against students.
Alpine agrees that the disciplinary records are public. Parents say they believe the prohibitive fees are a way for the district to hide otherwise public information.
“This should be public knowledge,” said parent James Gaffney. “Why do you have to pay for this?”
Gaffney attended a recent Alpine School District board meeting to voice his displeasure with sexual content in schools. He said he was surprised to see the amount of misconduct cases statewide.
The Utah State Board of Education has provided information on dozens of cases where teachers received state discipline since 2022.
Here are a few examples.
- Case 1896: An educator spent “alone time” with a student, having “inappropriate conversations” and “providing alcohol to the minor student on three occasions.”
- Case 1901: An educator “had an inappropriate relationship with a high school student, which included private travel together and getting matching tattoos.”
- Case 1924: An educator “touched students inappropriately, including touching a student’s genitals over her pants while she was babysitting in the educator’s home.” The educator also contacted students over social media.
- Case 1936: An educator “described a student’s behavior as ‘hot,’” and “took questionable photos of students in a yearbook class.”
- Case 1810: An educator “kissed a female student after a school activity.” The educator also “exchanged messages” with the student on social media and met up with the student off campus, giving “inappropriate gifts” and exchanging “inappropriate photos.”
So far, it’s unknown how many of those cases (if any) occurred within Alpine, the largest school district in Utah.
USBE has not provided a list of names or districts, and Alpine continues to hold disciplinary records behind a paywall.
Alpine is charging...
- $85 for sustained cases of grooming
- $102 for sustained cases of boundary violations
- $85 for sustained cases of sexual misconduct
- $102 for sustained cases of violence against students
Alpine initially charged a $15 fee for zero records related to sustained cases of cyber-bullying, but the district withdrew the fee after the publication of this story.
FOX 13 News is appealing each fee under Utah’s public records law.
Many districts have already supplied disciplinary records for free, citing a “public benefit.” They say they’re committed to taking swift action against teachers who harm children.
Some districts are charging even higher fees than Alpine.
- Davis School District
- $4,320 for records related to cyber-bullying, retaliation, boundary violations, violence with students, grooming, and sexual misconduct
- $4,320 for records related to cyber-bullying, retaliation, boundary violations, violence with students, grooming, and sexual misconduct
- Granite School District
- $234 - $388 for records related to cyber-bullying, retaliation, boundary violations, violence with students, grooming, and sexual misconduct
Jordan School District
- $476.89 for records related to boundary violations, violence with students, and sexual misconduct
- Nebo School District
- $385 for records related to violence with students, boundary violations, and sexual misconduct
- $385 for records related to violence with students, boundary violations, and sexual misconduct
- Weber School District
- $1,289.76 for records related to bullying, boundary violations, violence with students.
- Tooele County School District
- $6,651.05 for records related to bullying, cyber-bullying, retaliation, boundary violations, violence with students, grooming, and sexual misconduct.
"This is not something where they should have to do heavy research. They should be hyper-focused on tracking that," said Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo. "This isn't the first time we've had challenges with Alpine and their lack of transparency with the public."
"This is just a government agency trying to hide their own mistakes," wrote Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City. "Shameful."
Gaffney referred to Alpine’s fees as a “cover up.”
“It’s borderline protecting pedophiles from what I’m seeing on here,” Gaffney said. “Grooming kids?! This could be happening in my child’s high school... You shouldn’t have anything sexual in front of kids, period.”
According to state law, records that "primarily benefit the public” should be provided “without charge.”
"They absolutely are in the public's interest," Sen. Bramble said. "I believe they should already be public... Now they're going to have to spend public education dollars to defend a bad decision."
Sen. Bramble serves as chair of the Senate Business and Labor Confirmation Committee, which is tasked with approving members of the State Records Committee.
"Adam, as a parent of six children — a grandparent of 20 — all of our kids have matriculated in the public education system," Bramble said. "Absolutely, the misconduct records of teachers in the public education system (have) a heightened public interest, if anything."
Kraig Brinkerhoff, an attorney for Alpine School District, agreed that there is a "public benefit" in providing the data.
“Sure, but that’s not the question,” Brinkerhoff said. “We will follow the law.”
Gaffney said providing the records for free would be a transparent way to allow parents to know what is happening in their kids’ classrooms.
Sara Hacken, the president of Alpine’s school board, said “it depends.”
“Some information is confidential,” Hacken said. “(Parents) don’t have a right to it... A teacher or a parent has a right to confidentiality, and that has to be respected as well. It’s not like everything that ever happens, everywhere, the public has a right to know, because they don’t.”
"Yes, but not if they’ve been disciplined,” said FOX 13 investigative reporter Adam Herbets.
“Well, maybe,” Hacken responded.
Hacken accused FOX 13 News of “looking to dish dirt on teachers.”
Gaffney disagreed.
“It’s not that you’re trying to make teachers look bad,” Gaffney said. “They made themselves look bad because they did it!”
Hacken said she believes “teachers are doing the best job they can.”
She declined to say whether she thinks there’s a public benefit for parents to have access to the information.
“They’re not perfect,” Hacken said. “Sometimes they make mistakes. We do what we can.”
AnnMarie Gordon, another parent, said she wasn’t surprised to see Hacken’s reluctance.
“They’re just unaccountable to parents,” Gordon said. “They feel like they don’t need to be transparent. They see themselves as above scrutiny... In theory, I think they’d like to (be transparent), but their actions over and over again show us that they’re not necessarily trying.”
Gordon said she has also tried to request public records from Alpine, unrelated to teacher discipline.
When she ran into roadblocks, she said she had to ask state lawmakers for help.
She believes releasing records related to sexual misconduct would act as a deterrent.
“Grooming happens very slowly, and it happens very carefully,” Gordon said. “If that can help protect a child, I think that it is in the public’s best interest... The reality is, the more times that news media outlets expose this type of information? If it gets out there? Believe me, teachers (or whoever) won’t do it. It won’t happen in the first place.”
Gaffney said he would like to see other members of the public email their board members or attend Alpine School District meetings to “lift their voices.”
FOX 13 News reached out to Alpine School District board members Mark Clement and Stacy Bateman for an interview.
Clement and Bateman declined to comment.
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Editor's note: A previous version of this story stated Alpine School District was charging $389.
After the initial publication of this story, the district waived a $15 fee for (zero) records related to cyber-bullying. This brought the total down to $374.