By Aaron Hancey | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
I respectfully ask for your immediate resignation!
You have had the privilege of being a leader to your community on at least two different occasions: 1. As a teacher and survivor of the shooting at Columbine High School and 2. As a currently elected non-partisan official on the Jefferson County School Board.
I can relate.
I am also a non-partisan elected official. I currently am the mayor pro-tem for the City of Fruita on the Western Slope of Colorado. I, too, am a survivor of the shooting at Columbine High School and was 17 years old when I helped to lead a classroom that was full of scared students and teachers while I administered first aid to Mr. Sanders. He had been shot multiple times and I spent three-and-a-half hours trying to save him, before he later passed away from his wounds.
As elected officials, we are held to a higher standard because we have chosen to serve our communities. We are expected to be civil ourselves, setting the tone to encourage others to do the same. While we may fall short on occasion, you have crossed a line that can only end with your humility and resignation.
On July 4, 2024, you publicly shared hate and cause for violence against another American citizen. If this statement came from a student within a Jefferson County School District school, they would have received swift repercussion or discipline for their alarming behavior. Hate and violence has no place in our schools or communities; particularly when perpetuated by a trusted, elected leader.
With your experiences as a teacher and survivor at Columbine High School, you saw first-hand that two individuals allowed their emotions to escalate into hate and they violently took the lives of 12 students and one teacher on that morning of April 20, 1999. Why would you contribute to the poisonous divide that has been festering in our communities for far too many years? Do you NOT remember how our community came together in a desperate time of need, and we showed each other how much we loved each other and our community? It was inspiring to see that unity when we could have easily allowed ourselves to let our emotions spiral into a direction of hate. We KNEW that evil had taken place, but we made sure we came together as a community, almost as an unspoken pledge to combat that evil, unified in compassion.
From many public comments you have made over the years, I see how we may not see eye to eye on various issues. And that is 100% OK! However, as we participate in our communities as leaders, we are to bring everyone together. It is never OK for you or me, as a citizens or elected officials, to behave in the way you did in making that hateful, alarming statement on July 4.
As non-partisan public officials, we have a duty and obligation to set an example. Civil discourse should be our goal, not inflammatory hatred. Based on these standards you have fallen disappointingly short of the expectation of a public official.
So again, I request and expect your immediate resignation!
Aaron Hancey, Former Jefferson County School District student and parent, Columbine High School Survivor
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.