As soon as she opened the message — a picture of a phone screen — she knew what it meant.

The photos visible on the phone’s screen didn’t show her face, but she immediately recognized the two blonde streaks that ran through her hair when she was 14 years old. When she’d taken the nude images of herself.

The pictures were from three years earlier, but the comments below were new. “Sharing her nudes now.” “Check out her boobs.” “She’s so flat.”

The photos had been shared in a private Snapchat group that the friend heard about from another classmate. The classmate had taken a photo of the chat and sent it to that mutual friend, who sent it to her as a text, asking if it was her in the photos.

A group of boys at their school was behind the initial message with the collage of photos, the friend said, and her photos weren’t the only ones uploaded.

Armed with the chat image as evidence, the screen names it showed and the names of some of the boys that friends told her were involved, she went to the front office of her public high school in 2023. She reported what she saw as a clear-cut crime: Nude images of her as a minor were online without her consent.

What followed was a monthslong fight where the former student, now 20, says she was failed by Syracuse High School leaders and the Davis School District — a district that has, in recent years, faced accusations of racism and sexual misconduct.

Now, she’s suing. Her allegations are outlined in a 85-page federal lawsuit filed late Thursday.

“How they handled it was just appalling,” she told The Salt Lake Tribune before the case was filed, tearing up as she recounted her experience while her giant Doberman, Zuko, tried to nuzzle her. “I felt like I should trust these people. They should be looking out for me.”

Her assertions against school and district leadership “are not isolated,” the lawsuit states. “They reflect a systemic, entrenched pattern and practice within Davis School District of failing to meaningfully respond to reports of student-on-student sexual harassment and sexual exploitation.”

She filed the lawsuit under the pseudonym Jane Doe 1, along with a second student, Jane Doe 2, who reported similar Instagram posts that targeted her. Both said they feel the school took no substantial action to address messages and posts they allege were circulated among a group of roughly 20 male students.

In an interview, Jane Doe 2, also now 20, said, “I was a child and this was happening, and I’m fighting against grown adults.”

The two asked a judge for permission to use the pseudonyms in public court documents because the case involves nude and fake images of them from when they were minors. On those grounds, The Tribune agreed not to name them to protect their privacy.

The Tribune has separately sought information about the allegations for months — requesting records, speaking with the plaintiffs on multiple occasions and interviewing several people familiar with their claims.

The young women say Syracuse High and its principal, the school district and its superintendent, as well at least two other named administrators, knew about their reports as early as fall 2023, around the start of their senior year.

But, the women now allege, school leaders did not offer them resources. They do not know how the boys they accused were investigated by the school or whether any determinations about their involvement were made, although none appeared to them to be suspended or expelled. As the months passed, messages and social media posts about them continued to circulate, they allege.

The seeming lack of response violated the district’s own written policies for responding to cyberbullying and sexual harassment, said attorney Alexander Chang of Sollex Legal, who is representing the plaintiffs.

The filing alleges that at one point, Principal Jed Johansen told Jane Doe 1 and her parents they shouldn’t “ruin these boys’ lives” and potentially harm their chances to serve future proselytizing missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Shortly after, the same principal was reported for having intimate relationships with a teacher and another school employee, and allegedly sexually harassing a third worker, including while the girls were reporting their concerns.

During an initial interview with district officials, Johansen “admitted to the alleged inappropriate conduct,” as well as to “having pornographic images on his district-issued cell phone,” according to documents obtained by The Tribune in a public records request.

The district superintendent agreed to wipe Johansen’s district devices without examining what was on them if he agreed to step down, according to the lawsuit and a complaint a district HR official later filed to the state. Johansen resigned in January 2025, ahead of a state investigation, which later led to his teaching license being suspended for four years.

Johansen could not be reached for comment; The Tribune attempted to reach him multiple times. The attorney who represented him in the state investigation said he was not representing Johansen in the new lawsuit.

In response to Tribune questions about the filing, Davis School District issued a statement saying it “strongly disputes the allegations against district personnel and rejects the characterization of their conduct.” The claims in the lawsuit, it added, “do not accurately reflect the facts, the investigative record or the actions taken by district employees.”

The district said it will respond “through the appropriate legal process, where the relevant evidence can be evaluated fairly and in its proper context.”

It also added: “We take allegations of misconduct seriously and remain committed to student safety, accountability and the fair and responsible handling of such matters.”

Jane Doe 1: ‘Because they could and wanted to’

Jane Doe 1 said she originally took the photos of herself in 2020, when she was going through a mental health crisis.

She was in and out of the hospital, on and off different medications, according to her mom, who also spoke with The Tribune. The family later learned those medications lowered her inhibitions.

At the time, Jane Doe 1 said, she was searching for validation as she navigated depression, anxiety and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (a severe negative reaction to hormones released during the menstrual cycle).

“At this time in my life, I was so widely insecure,” she said. “Because I thought so negatively about myself, any sort of compliment was needed in order to not feel so awful.”

She doesn’t remember who she sent the photos to. But it wasn’t the boy who posted them in the Snapchat group in late October 2023, she said, according to the text she received. She’d rarely ever talked to him, she said, and didn’t have his phone number.

“How the hell does he have these?,” she remembers thinking.

At that point, she was 17 years old. She had just gotten home from dance practice.

The classmate who first saw the images and shared them with the mutual friend was Chrysten Walker, who agreed to speak with The Tribune.

Walker was also a senior at the time and found out about the photos while hanging out with a boy she’d been dating. A Snapchat notification popped up on his phone while she was using it, she said, and she instinctively clicked on it.

It took her to a group chat called “Demon Time,” where nude images of several girls — maybe 10 to 15, she estimated — had been posted.

She didn’t recognize any until she saw Jane Doe 1’s telltale blonde hair streaks. That’s when she used her own phone to take a photo of the screen and sent that to the mutual friend.

A few days later, she went to the front office with Jane Doe 1 to report it.

At Jane Doe 1’s side, Walker provided a list of boys she remembered seeing in the chat. Six are now named as defendants in the lawsuit, which accuses them of sexually exploiting children by sharing images.

They have not been criminally charged. Generally, The Tribune does not name people accused of crimes until they are charged, and it does not always cover such criminal cases. The Tribune has decided not to name the boys at this stage of the civil lawsuit.

When Jane Doe 1 and Walker went to the front office, a staffer instructed both girls to scan a QR code, which directed them to an online form, Jane Doe 1 said.

Both filled it out; The Tribune obtained a copy of Jane Doe 1’s answers through a public records request made with her permission.

She remembers one question that made her mad: “Why do you think this happened?”

It felt like victim-blaming, she said. She typed into the box: “Because they could and wanted to.”

Jane Doe 1 was then asked to upload her evidence — the chat photo that depicted her nude images. The lawsuit alleges that went directly to Principal Johansen’s email inbox, circumventing Davis School District policy.

It instead directs students to fill out a different form that can be flagged for a trained employee, such as the district’s coordinator over Title IX (the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools).

The lawsuit alleges no one with the district’s Office of Equal Opportunity or over Title IX was alerted to Jane Doe 1’s report.

Instead, Jane Doe 1 said she was then instructed to talk to two male police officers, one with the district and another with Syracuse police. They asked her to show them the photo, she said, and then upload it to a law enforcement computer.

Then they instructed her and Walker to permanently delete the images from their phones and watched until they did so, the lawsuit alleges. That left Jane Doe 1 without the only piece of evidence she had, she said.

No one offered Jane Doe 1 any support that day or later, including counseling or safety plans, she said. No one explained her rights under Title IX. And no one reached out to her parents.

She was sent back to class but remembers being “emotionally exhausted” and went home instead, where she decided to tell them herself.

‘Considered to have never occurred’

In the following days, Jane Doe 1 and her mom went directly to Syracuse police to file a formal report there, too.

Three months later, in February 2024, a detective told the family that “actionable items” — regarding the boy who allegedly first shared the photos of Jane Doe 1 — were being forwarded to the Davis County attorney’s office.

The Tribune asked police for the report the family filed and prosecutors for any filings they made; both refused to provide documents, citing an expungement order from a judge. They also declined to provide records to Jane Doe 1 and her mom, the family said.

Utah Courts spokesperson Tania Mashburn said when a judge approves an expungement request, a case is “considered to have never occurred.”

A copy of the expungement order obtained by The Tribune states there was “a successful nonjudicial adjustment” in the case against a juvenile defendant. That’s an agreement between a child and a probation officer to avoid a formal criminal charge. No further records are available.

Jane Doe 1 and her parents said for months, they received no call from the school. A copy of her school records shows only one entry noting her initial report.

When the principal eventually called, one month before Jane Doe 1’s May 2024 graduation, he told her parents he couldn’t say whether any boys were disciplined, because it was private student information. It was the only time he reached out, according to her parents and the lawsuit.

The boys that Jane Doe 1 and Walker reported never seemed to miss class for any disciplinary reason, Jane Doe 1 said. She had a class with some of them, she added, which felt terrifying.

“No one wants to come forward because not a goddamn thing happens,” Jane Doe 1’s mom told The Tribune.

The district didn’t respond directly to a question from The Tribune about discipline, but it added in its statement: “Our commitment to complying with the law should not be mistaken for an effort to conceal information, nor should our inability to publicly discuss protected records be mistaken for an absence of investigation or action.”

Not feeling safe, Jane Doe 1 eventually stopped going to school, she said. Her GPA plummeted, and when she needed one more English class to graduate, she chose to take it online during her final semester of high school.

“The burden was placed entirely on Jane Doe 1 to modify her behavior and avoid the harassers,” the lawsuit states, “rather than on the school to take any action against the perpetrators.”

‘Why are you disciplining my daughter?’

In addition to the private Snapchat group, there was also a public Instagram page allegedly run by the same boys called “Syracuse Barstool,” the lawsuit states.

There, posts included polls about which teachers were the “loosest” and rankings of the “freakiest” female students. Jane Does 1 and 2 shared screenshots with The Tribune to review. One read, “If [male student’s name] wasn’t dating [female student’s name], I would have raped her already.” Others include racist and derogatory phrases, including the N-word.

Jane Doe 2 said she first realized she was on the page in October 2023 and told Jenny Hadley, then-coordinator of the school’s teen center. Hadley went with her to report it to school administrators, shortly before Jane Doe 1’s report.

Hadley spoke with The Tribune, confirming the account.

At the time, Jane Doe 2 was 17 and named the boys she believed were involved. She was directed to the same QR code and form, she said.

Administrators then drafted a “no-contact contract” between her and one of the boys she named. That meant he couldn’t talk to her, and she couldn’t talk to him — if that agreement was broken, either could face discipline. She was also told not to tell other students about her report, she said, which made her feel “silenced as the victim.”

Two days later, a video posted on the Instagram page called her a “rat.” It included photos pulled from her own social media, she said, and included the sound of a gunshot at the end.

Another Instagram post showed an image of her face pasted atop a nude body in a sexually suggestive pose, the lawsuit states. Classmates mocked her in the hallways, she said. She went home and cried.

The next day, she said, someone anonymously sent the photo to her younger sister while both were at school.

Again, in November 2023, Jane Doe 2 went to school administrators, she said. She recalls the principal saying there was little he could do. He drafted a second “no-contact contract” with another boy. It made things worse, the lawsuit asserts.

Johansen told her he instructed the boys to shut down the page, she recounted. Hours later, though, it was back up under a different name — “SHS Heavy Haters” — posting the same kind of content, according to the lawsuit.

Jane Doe 2 estimates she ultimately reported the boys 30 times throughout her senior year. The Tribune obtained a copy of her student file through a public records request made with her permission; it documents her repeated reports.

Several times, she said, administrators told her “boys will be boys.” Hadley said she heard this comment, too, from administrators at least five times.

At one point, an administrator said she would stand in the hallways between Jane Doe 2’s classes to dissuade any verbal abuse. That lasted one day, the lawsuit states, asserting she was offered no other support or resources.

She asked about switching classes, but the school ultimately said it was too far into the term for her to make changes, the lawsuit says.

During spring term, the school said she could do independent study in the library for a week as a “reprieve” from the boys, Jane Doe 2 said.

Her mom came to the school and questioned that.

“Why are you disciplining my daughter?” Jane Doe 2 recalls her mom asking. “Why is her education being affected?” Jane Doe 2’s student file notes the visit.

According to the lawsuit, it got harder for Jane Doe 2 to will herself to go to class: “She was absent on a weekly basis because the unrelenting harassment made it impossible for her to attend school safely.”

Getting the district’s attention

By March 2024, Jane Doe 2 was angry.

In an English class, she was assigned to write a satirical essay. She wrote about the apparent lack of response to her situation and sent it to administrators at her school and across the district.

“I hope that while reading this,” she wrote in her email, “you put yourself in our shoes (the women at Syracuse High School) and advocate for us.”

A few days later, a top district administrator reached out to her to schedule a sit-down meeting. The administrator, who oversaw all of the district’s secondary schools, seemed to speak and behave as if she was shocked by the allegations and hearing them for the first time, Jane Doe 2 said.

At that point, the administrator referred the girls involved, and their parents, to the district’s Title IX coordinator, the lawsuit states. Jane Doe 2 and her parents met with the coordinator on March 18; the coordinator then referred the case to a racial investigations officer, according to Jane Doe 2 and her student file.

Jane Doe 2, her mom and her dad were all confused. She is Hispanic, she said, but race wasn’t relevant to her allegations. The family did, however, question if she would have been taken more seriously if she was white.

An official later emailed them in April, concluding the district found no racism in how administrators responded, and Jane Doe 2’s case was dropped. Her student records confirm that.

Jane Doe 2 filed another report, this time using the district’s official form.

The day after graduation, the district’s Title IX coordinator emailed her to say Jane Doe 2’s allegations didn’t constitute sexual harassment under that law, because the posts “occurred online and outside of Davis School District jurisdiction.”

District guidance notes ‘cyber-bullying’

The lawsuit asserts that several pieces of the district’s handbook indicate the girls’ reports should’ve been handled differently.

A school administrator with knowledge of any sexual harassment allegation, for example, must at minimum discuss supportive measures with the reporting student.

The district’s code of conduct also says those allegations should be reported to the district’s Title IX coordinator.

In addition, the policy says sexual misconduct can involve “creating, possessing, requesting, or sharing pornographic images of nude or semi-nude adults or minors.” It notes such conduct is punishable by suspension or expulsion.

A separate administrative memo from the superintendent adds “any written, physical, or verbal aggression, intimidation, discrimination, or abusive conduct of any school employee or student” can result in suspension, a transfer, expulsion and be referred to police.

That includes “bullying, cyber-bullying, hazing, or retaliation” at school or school activities, the memo notes.

Chang, the attorney representing the girls, asserts that’s an acknowledgement that the district has an obligation to respond to cyberbullying. It’s a responsibility under Title IX law, too, he said.

The lawsuit contends: “The online platforms were, in practical effect, extensions of the school hallway.”

Hadley, with the school’s teen center, tried to help the girls, she said. She directed them to the district’s official form, and tried to involve administrators.

Principal suspended for inappropriate relationships

It was also Hadley who reported Johansen for sexual harassment after she said he repeatedly came to her office and talked about personal things, including his marriage, sex life and pending divorce.

By November 2024, she felt forced to resign, citing a hostile work environment. In the same month she left, another person emailed the district’s superintendent, alleging Johansen had inappropriate sexual relationships with two school employees.

The district started an investigation, led by its Title IX office. The Tribune fought and won an appeal to get records documenting how the district handled that investigation.

A series of emails includes an exchange where Johansen asked if it would end if he resigned, and the Title IX coordinator said “yes,” which is what happened.

But the district’s human resources director, Suzi Jensen, reported the allegations to the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission, the board that formally investigates alleged teacher misconduct and oversees teaching licenses.

The commission’s findings, issued later in 2025, were also obtained by The Tribune.

They note the first relationship he had with a school employee started in 2019 and lasted several years; the two at times had sex on campus. Johansen told investigators the relationship was consensual. The relationship with the second employee started in 2022; that employee told investigators they had kissed at school.

UPPAC suspended his license for four years after concluding “Johansen showed a pattern of harassment and inappropriate conduct,” documents show.

The district didn’t comment directly on the investigation into Johansen. But in its statement, it said: “The allegations conflate separate matters involving student misconduct and employee conduct, each subject to distinct investigative processes and legal requirements.”

Their lives now

Jane Does 1 and 2 say their senior year experience continues to haunt them. In their filing, they call for a trial and financial damages, mainly to cover years of therapy.

Additionally, Jane Doe 1 said because her education suffered, she was rejected from her dream school, the University of Utah, where she planned to try out for the dance team and study psychiatry.

This year, two years later than she planned to start college, she started taking online classes at Weber State University. She said she can’t look at the dance trophies in her childhood bedroom without crying.

Jane Doe 2 once wanted to become a teacher, she said. Now, she doesn’t trust the education system. She took a few classes at Utah Valley University in Orem, but felt anxious being far from family and dropped out.

She’s currently working at a restaurant in her hometown, where she said she’s constantly scared of running into the boys she went to school with.

“I think I’ve blocked out like 90% of what happened in high school, because it was so traumatic for me,” she said.

Jane Doe 1 added, “Me, too.”

Jane Doe 1’s mom said the girls did everything they were supposed to — and were still failed.

“I see why people don’t report,” she said.

They hope the lawsuit will create a shift at Davis School District and Syracuse High, where there seems to be a “culture that this is acceptable and it’s the girls’ fault,” the mother added.