As a parent, would you feel comfortable with your child attending a school in a district where the school board director had one accusation of sexual assault against a minor on his record? How about two accusations? And how would you expect the other board members to handle it?
Unfortunately, the parents and current and former students of Denver Public Schools are being faced with exactly thissituation. Yet, what is even more deplorable than simply having to reconcile with one or two alleged incidents of sexual assault currently under investigation against the existing Denver Public School Board Director, Tay Anderson – they are having to stomach the knowledge that a man they elected to set a path toward a brighter future for their children is now facing 74 accusations of sexual misconduct, inappropriate behavior, assault, rape and abuse, all of which are incidents against underage children (many of whom are “Dreamers”) within the school system he oversees. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.
Most parents would expect the other school board members and local officials to step up and handle the problem in a manner that prioritizes the safety, security and healing of the victims and their families in the district they were elected to advocate for…to listen compassionately to the children and teenagers who come forward with their experiences, ranging from being made to feel uncomfortable, to actual physical and sexual violence, and for local leaders to commit to fighting for the appropriate consequences to be applied, and add the ordeal to the school’s already zealous activism for awareness and justice.
Well, if that’s what you were looking for as a parent with a child who attends school in the largest school district in Colorado – Denver Public Schools is not here for any of it.
As more information has come to light about the atrocities piling up around DPS’s golden boy, Tay Anderson, the harder the School Board Members and other activist organizations have not only fought to defend him, but worked to silence anyone who is alarmed by his actions.
Where parents were expecting the leaders of their schools to come to the table for them, to express their disgust and abhorrence at the events unfolding in their very community, they have been met with the astonishing reality that their school board has left them to fight for themselves.
After all, on an alleged racist pedophile yields a very busy schedule.
When DPS parents and students found that their concerns were not being addressed or taken seriously by their local education officials, a peaceful protest was organized.
On Thursday, June 10th students in the district for DPS gathered at Denver City Hall to make their voices heard and stand up for Anderson’s victims – because the adults of authority in their lives have consistently refused to do so for them.
During the event, not only were protesters harassed, threatened and yelled at – Denver Public Schools set up their own P.R. table, covered in colorful fliers, which seemed like an attempt to present themselves as superior to those who needed them to hear their concerns…to silence anyone who might threaten their radical leftist agenda by making one of their own look bad, and make it known that, though you voted them in, out of trust and belief that they could safely put their children’s education and wellbeing in their hands – you could not could not expect their support.
A former DPS student, Gigi Gordon, who has first-hand knowledge of the conduct in question that fellow classmates and other teenagers in these schools have repeatedly raised concerns about, has been relentlessly harassed since she started bringing these issues to the forefront and demanding action on behalf of the dozens of victims who are too afraid to say anything. At the June 10th protest she witnessed a woman, Mona Cedillo, recording video of the event on her phone.
There are active petitions being circulated by hundreds of students who want new diplomas issued without Tay’s name on them. There are numerous individuals and families finally feeling strong enough to vocalize the frustration and intimidation that they personally felt walking the halls with him as a fellow student, working alongside him in one of the many organizations he became a part of (that conveniently gave him access to larger groups of vulnerable minors), or when he gained his role as School Board Director.
So, why are so many people still afraid?
The Denver Public School Board has sided with a monster, and anyone who speaks out against him is threatened, bullied, and targeted. They are not interested in your #metoo hashtags, or the time you marched for women, fought for their cause of sanctuary cities, shouted their slogans about the human rights of illegal immigrants, about believing all women, or the t-shirt you wore with the word “equity” on it.
If you show up to destroy a historical monument, set up a guillotine on the steps of the Capitol Building, spray paint vulgarities on the side of a government building, destroy a local business, relieve yourself on a public sidewalk, throw projectiles at local police, or call all white people racist – they’ll probably put your face on the cover of a magazine.
However, if you’re a parent, a teenager, a child, or an educator who comes to the School Board with valid information regarding abuse and violence at the hands of one of the school officials – you had better watch your back.
~Samantha Bowers Koch,
