A Utah school district is facing backlash after failing to take action against a white student-athlete who is accused of using a racial slur during a football game in October. Elias West, a senior running back at Layton High School in Davis School District, brought the accusation against his opponent. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, West said he remembers what he heard from the boy after being tackled by a group of players. 

“Stay down, you n****r,” the opposing player said, according to West.

The Layton High senior immediately responded to his opponent.

“Don’t f**king call me a n****r,” he said in response. 

The frustration continued for West when he realized that he had been ejected from the game.

 “I was the one that got punished,” he told the Tribune.

The referee said he only heard the slur from West, who was also forced to sit out for the next two games. 

“So a white boy said the n-word, a Black boy defending himself said the same n-word, and yet only one was punished,” his mother, Lissa West, said.

Davis School District investigated the incident and decided not to take any action against the opposing team or the players. 

Shortly before the October game, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report on the district, concluding that it intentionally ignored “serious and widespread” racial harassment in its schools for years. According to the DOJ, the district failed to respond after hundreds of Black students said they have been called slaves and n****r.

Jeff Cluff, assistant director of the Utah High School Activities Association, said there is an increasing number of racial slurs being used against Black students and staff across the state. Last month, a Black basketball coach at Cyprus High in Salt Lake County found "white power" written on his car. 

Davis School District also came under fire recently after the death of 10-year-old Izzy Tichenor, who died by suicide after her mom said she was bullied for being Black and autistic. 

As Blavity previously reported,  Brittany Tichenor-Cox said the district failed to protect her daughter. 

"She was an easy target especially after a teacher joined in mocking this young lady," the family said in a statement. "As any parent would, we reported this abuse to her teachers, the school administration and the district administration. Nothing. Nothing was done to protect Izzy. Children did not have their behavior corrected so the torment of this child continued day after day."