SLC school district denies retaliating against former West High principal who raised safety concerns after student stabbing

The former principal of West High School said Thursday that he had pressed for answers about a 2023 student stabbing — and claimed that district leaders retaliated against him for his persistence, contributing to his sudden and unexplained resignation.

Jared Wright made the statement under oath before the Utah Legislature’s Rules Review and General Oversight Committee, which had subpoenaed him and West High’s former assistant principal Sarah Thomas as part of a broader discussion on high school safety.

But in two statements Thursday evening, Salt Lake City School District officials said Wright’s account was “not true.”

“We want to state clearly: claims that the district retaliated against an employee or their family members for raising safety concerns are categorically false,” a statement read. The district said it “is committed to ensuring our schools remain safe and supportive environments and fully complying with the law.”

District officials placed Wright on administrative leave on Jan. 10 while they conducted an internal investigation, but they did not disclose the reason. Two weeks later, he resigned.

In his testimony, Wright said the district had accused him of “falsely certifying hundreds of students at graduation” for the 2023-24 school year, allegations he denied Thursday.

Wright also testified that the investigation came amid his growing friction with district leaders, who he said had told him to stop raising safety concerns about the school after a female student was stabbed by a male student in a West High restroom in 2023.

He said district Superintendent Elizabeth Grant told him to stop talking about the assault, and that January’s investigation seemed to “coincide with my continued pressure about this specific incident and with other security concerns that we had there.”

He also alleged the district engaged in “indirect retaliation” against his two daughters who attended West High by shutting down the clubs they were involved in.

“The district vehemently denies that it has engaged in any type of retaliation,” officials told The Salt Lake Tribune.

“We were disappointed to learn that today’s meeting included only testimony from two former district employees regarding high school safety, without prior notice to, or participation by, current district leadership,” their statement said, adding that as a result, lawmakers have been left with incomplete information.

While no district officials were at the hearing, lawmakers said they plan to follow up with them at a later date. The district, in its statement, said it welcomes the opportunity to answer questions and “correct misinformation.”

District officials knew of past conflicts, Wright alleges

According to Wright’s testimony, district leaders knew the attacker had a history of violence and prior conflicts with the stabbing victim but never informed him, as the school’s principal. In the statements to The Tribune, district officials said they had no such knowledge.

The assault occurred on Oct. 10, 2023, following what Wright described as a “planned fight” between about 10 female students. The fight took place in a second-floor bathroom and a few male students were there observing it, Wright said.

When it was over, one of the male students “pulled a knife out of his pocket and stabbed a young woman in the abdomen,” Wright said. Emergency services were called immediately and the student was taken to Primary Children’s Hospital, he said.

About an hour after the stabbing, Wright said, he met with Emily Sutherland, the area director at the district. Sutherland had previously served as the director of safe schools, Wright said.

He recalls that Sutherland said she was familiar with the male student, noting that he had been removed from a middle school in the district the year prior for “fighting, for violent acts … for threatening to bring weapons and to kill people.”

He was moved to Horizonte Instruction and Training Center for safety and was expected to complete a program, though Wright said he’s unclear whether the student did or not. The student later enrolled at West.

Wright alleged that when he asked why he hadn’t been informed of the student’s history, Sutherland responded: “We figured that he needed a fresh start, a clean slate, and we weren’t confident that you would treat him well if we told you about his past.”

Wright told lawmakers, “I was very concerned at that point … clearly viewing a systems failure and negligence of leadership to ensure the safety of individuals."

In a statement to The Tribune, district officials said Wright’s account was “not true.” Officials said: “To the best of our knowledge, the perpetrator did not have past conflicts with the victim.”

Wright said he met with the victim’s mother a day after the attack. She told him that the male student had “roughed up” her daughter while they were both at the same middle school, and had been removed from the school after threatening to kill her.

“It was at that point I realized that he was moved specifically away from [the middle school] because he had issued threats against the girl that he had actually acted upon at West High School,” Wright said. “I don’t know, had we known about the student, if we could have entirely prevented that, but I will say we would have tried.”

Wright said district leaders ignored him

When a student’s behavior is particularly severe and threatens the safety of their classmates, it may warrant what’s called a “district-level response and a safe school committee meeting,” according to SLCSD policy.

The committee votes to determine the student’s discipline, which can include expulsion or a transfer to the training center. Wright said committee members voted to expel the male student a few weeks after the stabbing.

However, he was allegedly told by one of those members that district attorney Kristina Kindl told them to “change their vote,” because Grant, the superintendent, didn’t want to expel him. Committee members ultimately refused to change their votes, he said.

Wright said he met with Grant and Kindl in December 2023, where he was assured by Kindl that the superintendent “had full legal latitude to not expel a student, regardless of what the safe school committee had voted.”

He told them the “system had failed,” he said. It was “clear that the system knew that a student was dangerous and had issued threats” against another student, he said, but had allowed both to be enrolled at West High.

He also raised the issue “that their advocacy had been for the assailant and nothing for the victim,” he said, “who lost almost an entire year of school.”

The student was ultimately expelled “in accordance with state law,” district officials confirmed to The Tribune. Officials said Grant did express concern about doing so, however, as she was “focused on the student’s future educational options should he be released from police custody.”

“Dr. Grant sought to determine whether there was an acceptable alternative, district-supervised online learning plan that could allow the student to continue his education while also ensuring the safety of other students and staff,” officials said. “There was no intention to return the student to [West High] or to in-person learning.”

Unsatisfied, Wright said he made several more attempts over the next year to “fix” what he viewed as a broken safety system. In August 2024, he said, Grant pulled him aside to tell him that she was “frustrated” with his communications and that the school board was “livid.”

“We’re mad at you, and you have a lot of potential,” Wright said he recalls Grant telling him. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

But district officials, once again, denied those allegations. “That is completely inaccurate and misstates the nature of the conversation and Superintendent Grant’s comments,” officials said.

In December, Wright said, he sent a letter to Grant, Board President Nate Salazar and Board Vice President Bryce Williams stating that in the year since the stabbing occurred, there’d been “no substantive or technical changes to our safe school processes.”

He also wrote that students were “still falling through the cracks,” he said, and that he would elevate the matter to the Utah Attorney General’s office if necessary.

A month later he was placed on administrative leave.

Wright still under investigation

Wright’s sudden absence was met with pushback from West High students who, days after the leave decision was made, walked out of class early in protest.

In its statement, the district declined to say why leaders placed Wright on leave or why he resigned, citing a “negotiated settlement agreement” that includes a non-disclosure clause.

However, in his testimony Thursday, Wright said the district accused him of “a number of different things,” but primarily of “falsely certifying hundreds of students at graduation.”

Wright said this was related to a credit recovery program that the district, together with West High teachers and administrators, had helped develop to address learning loss from the long school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said a glitch in the system was preventing students’ earned credits from appearing on their transcripts. He began working with the registrar and school staff to make sure the transcripts were updated.

“They had assured me that things were okay,” Wright said Thursday, adding that district leadership didn’t discuss any issues with him prior to launching the investigation and placing him on leave.

Wright said he ultimately resigned, hoping that he and the district would go their separate ways, but district leaders filed a complaint against him with the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission (UPPAC), which is responsible for investigating and responding to allegations of teacher misconduct.

As that investigation is currently active, Wright said he couldn’t speak to the complaint. But he said he could lose his license, which would prevent him from keeping his current job as the principal of Granger High School in the Granite School District and seeking future employment.

District officials said they filed the complaint in accordance with state law which requires school districts to “report certain educator conduct.” They said: “In making any report to UPPAC, the District was merely complying with all applicable regulations.”

Lawmakers respond: ‘That is bull crap’

After hearing testimony from Wright and West High’s former assistant principal, lawmakers said they were concerned by the accounts and suggested state law might need revisiting.

“The retaliation … against administrators, I’m not going to lie,” Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, said, and then addressed the district directly: “Salt Lake City, if you’re listening, that is bull crap.”

Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, agreed.

“I want to keep an eye on this,” he said, “because the idea that Salt Lake City School District is reaching out to take an educator’s license because of remedial measures that were taken as a way to try and help students bridge a gap during a worldwide pandemic … that not only threatens the credibility of the process of licensing educators, it threatens the entire system upon which our education system is based on.”

He also had a direct message for the district: “I’m going to say Salt Lake City, I’m singling you out: It feels very petty and extremely ridiculous.”

In response to McCay’s comments, district officials reiterated that they were complying with state mandates.

“The district disagrees with Dr. Wright’s characterization of these events,” officials said. “As stated above, all referrals to UPPAC are made in accordance with UPPAC’s administrative rules.”