After the spouse of a Highland High School assistant cheerleading coach joined the team on an overnight school trip to California for a national competition, the Salt Lake City School District is expanding its background check requirements.

The spouse, a registered sex offender, pleaded guilty in 2022 to burglary and two counts of forcible sexual abuse. He was sentenced to seven months in jail and ordered to comply with “Group B” sex offender conditions; those don’t restrict him from being around minors, because the victim was an adult.

When he attended the February trip, it is unclear if he joined as an appointed chaperone or if he accompanied his spouse in an informal capacity. District officials declined to detail, citing an active investigation.

District policy forbids all “registered sex offenders” from volunteering “in any capacity.” It also requires appointed volunteers and chaperones to complete a background check before supervising overnight and extended trips or activities.

There is no such requirement for non-staff and family members who are not appointed as formal volunteers but attend student trips, according to the district’s current procedures.

That’s why the district is currently revisiting those processes, district spokesperson Yándary Chatwin said in a statement.

“We are changing our procedures related to all non-staff, including family members, who attend student trips, so that everyone has a background check,” she said.

Whether school administrators knew the spouse attended the trip, district officials wouldn’t say, again citing an active investigation.

“We were alerted to the circumstances of the February trip in April and immediately began investigating,” Chatwin said in a statement. “Student safety is always our first priority. The moment we understood the circumstances of the trip, we began investigating.”

Highland High’s principal, Jeremy Chatterton, was placed on leave April 20, but Chatwin did not confirm whether his leave was related to the investigation, noting she could not comment on “personnel matters.”

Chatterton returned to Highland High on May 11, she said.

Additionally, staff are not required to disclose family members’ criminal history, at least not under any formal school or district-level policy. Those policies also don’t contain procedures requiring staff to notify administrators if they plan to bring a guest on a student trip.

Chatwin declined to say whether the assistant cheer coach was being investigated or disciplined.

“This situation has given us an opportunity to look at how we do things in our district and we’re in the process of reviewing those procedures to see where some changes might be needed to make sure that we are keeping student safety at the forefront,” Chatwin said.

In 2021, the assistant cheer coach’s spouse drunkenly entered several campus dorm rooms at Utah State University and sexually assaulted a sleeping woman in her bed, court records show.

He was sentenced in 2022 and released from jail on March 28, 2023, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety online offender search. The Salt Lake Tribune is not identifying him or the assistant cheer coach in this story because it is not clear whether or not either violated any state restrictions or district procedures.

‘Gray area’ in state law

Utah law is clear that school volunteers cannot be registered sex offenders and that all volunteers must submit to background checks, said Ryan Bartlett, spokesperson for the Utah State Board of Education.

But a “gray area” exists, he acknowledged, when it comes to attending school-sponsored activities, assuming an offender is allowed to be around minors.

“People are allowed to go watch out-of-state sporting events,” Bartlett said. “It comes down to what his level of involvement was.”

For instance, it would be against the law for a registered sex offender to travel with students, advise or coach them, or go into hotel rooms where students are present, Bartlett explained.

But if they attended an event as a spectator and had little to no involvement with students, then state law wasn’t broken, Bartlett said.

Regardless of that level of involvement, however, situations like this can create a general “liability” for school districts, Bartlett added.

In the Salt Lake City School District, all overnight and extended student trips must be approved by the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education.

February’s cheer trip was submitted for approval last year, anticipating the team would qualify for nationals. The estimated budget at the time was around $1,200 per student, with about 30 students projected to attend.

The board is expected to review its “Overnight and Extended Trips or Activities” policy in a June 2 meeting, which follows a Tuesday subcommittee meeting, according to the district’s website.