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Ex-student sues Nebo School District for Title IX violations, former SF High counselor for sexual assault

By Carlene Coombs - | Nov 6, 2023
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Spanish Fork High School is pictured Tuesday, June 13, 2017, in Spanish Fork.
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Dylan Dewey walks back toward his seat with his defense attorney, John Allan, just after Dewey was sentenced at the 4th Judicial District Court on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018, in Provo.

A former Nebo School District student has filed a lawsuit against the district and former Spanish Fork High School employee Dylan Dewey, who previously served jail time for unlawful sexual activity with the same student. While employed at the school, Dewey worked as a counselor, driver’s education teacher and assistant girls’ basketball coach.

The lawsuit was filed in June and alleges that employees of Nebo School District had knowledge of the counselor’s “sexually inappropriate behavior” with students and knew Dewey was at risk of engaging in “sexual misconduct with a student” and was in violation of federal Title IX law.

According to the lawsuit, which identifies the former student as “Jane Doe,” Dewey was reprimanded during the 2014-2015 school year by the assistant principal at the time after they walked into Dewey’s office and witnessed a female student sitting in front of Dewey on his desk while wearing a skirt.

The court documents allege that the assistant principal gave Dewey a verbal warning and told him not to let students, especially female students, “be so casual around him.” The principal was then informed of the incident.

In 2017, according to the lawsuit, the Spanish Fork High principal gave Dewey a formal reprimand for violating the district’s policy after the counselor allegedly followed and communicated with a Spanish Fork High student through social media.

And, during the 2017-2018 school year, the lawsuit states the assistant principal “found it necessary to speak with Dewey about having students in his office too long.”

With the alleged incidents as examples, the lawsuit states, “Upon information and belief, the decision to allow Dewey unfettered contact with students within Nebo, without instituting any corrective measures to prevent him from preying on students, were official decisions to ignore the danger of sexual harassment and abuse to children that attended school within Nebo.”

Nebo School District declined to comment on Monday, saying it could not discuss pending litigation or personnel issues in accordance with “legal and ethical obligations.”

Dewey is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit for sexual battery/assault. In 2018, the former counselor was charged with a second-degree felony of forcible sexual abuse or an alternative of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, a class A misdemeanor. He was only sentenced for the misdemeanor.

Dewey was arrested in May 2018 after a report that he had inappropriately touched the student, who didn’t attend Spanish Fork High but another school in the district, in April 2018.

He was sentenced to 90 days in jail for a ​​class A misdemeanor of unlawful sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old in December 2018, according to previous Daily Herald reporting, and served jail time in 2019.

While working at the high school, Dewey had reportedly kissed the student in his office and communicated with her via text messages and Snapchat. In April 2018, he picked her up in Orem and drove the student to Mapleton, where he removed her shirt and inappropriately touched her.

The lawsuit states the district and school could have taken various actions against Dewey, such as fully investigating his actions, strictly supervising him, terminating him or moving him to an assignment where he didn’t have access to students.

“As a result of this gross failure to act, Plaintiff was sexually harassed, molested and abused by Dewey,” the lawsuit states.