By Kelly Notarfrancesco | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice

Jeffco School District values maintaining schools where “…all students…feel that their voices and perspectives are valued.” Yet one 13-year-old 7th grade honors student said she does not feel respected at school, after school officials told her she is not allowed to participate in her class poetry presentation because her submission is “too offensive” and “too politically charged.”

The Drake Middle School 7th grader, whose name is being withheld as she is a minor, submitted a poem titled, “A life is a life, no matter how small,” about choosing life over abortion. 

Shortly after submitting her poem Monday, the student was approached by her 7th grade Honors English Language Arts teacher Laura Wolf and told she would not be allowed to present her poem along with the rest of her class on Thursday, May 21. 

In an exclusive interview with RMV, the student said she felt “punished” after being told she could not present the poem to her classmates.

Images of the student’s SLAM poetry assignment, shared with RMV by the Caskey family.

According to the student, Wolf told her, “Hey, so about your poem. You cannot read that to the class…it can be too offensive, and I just can’t have you read that to the class.” Records obtained by RMV support the student’s assertion. 

Wolf told the student’s mother, Jacki Caskey, that the student’s poem met all the requirements of the assignment and was well-written, “…but, unfortunately, due to the list that we have to make all students feel safe in the classroom, um, she’s just not allowed to share it to the others.”

Drake Middle School Assistant Principal Megan Motley explained that she presented a list of unapproved topics to the class after the students had already begun their poem project. According to records, Motley said the list was on Google Classroom and she told the class, “…now we need to make sure that your topic does fit the list because…we don’t want anyone to feel unsafe in the classroom and some topics are too politically charged.”

The student, however, insists she was never provided a list of unapproved topics. At the request of RMV, both Caskey and her daughter searched Google Classroom, but were unable to find the alleged list. 

RMV requested a copy of the list directly from Jeffco School District, but as of publication, the district has not provided the list, nor responded to questions regarding ownership and creation of the list, or an explanation of the criteria used to determine the subjects which could make some students feel unsafe.

A poem assignment becomes a speech dispute

According to the student, she was never provided a list of unapproved subjects and the topic for the students’ final poem project did not require teacher approval. Students were instructed to choose a poem topic related to a research question from the approved assignment list. The research question approved list was provided to the students and is not a list of unallowed topics, referenced earlier. 

Approved research questions included: should 16-year-olds be allowed to vote in local elections, and what should schools teach in SEL lessons that would be helpful for all students. 

Caskey’s daughter chose the question, “How can we help those who have less than us?” with the support of Wolf, who recommended the question to the student.

“I was struggling [to] find a question out of the approved list, so I went up to her (Wolf)…and I said, my poem’s about life and choosing life and she, like, pointed out that question, and she’s, like, okay go ahead,” Caskey’s daughter said. 

Then, she said her teacher asked: “…is this about abortion?” to which the student responded, “…well, yes, but it’s about choosing life.” According to the student, the teacher suggested she change her topic to supporting teen moms, but never explicitly directed her to change the subject of her poem.

Images of Google Classroom 7th grade Honors English Language Arts SLAM Poetry assignment, shared with RMV by the Caskey Family.

After the student was told she would not be allowed to present her poem to the class, Wolf approached the student and asked what she wanted to do about the poem presentation grade. The student replied, “If I can’t read my poem, then I’m not reading any poem.” Wolf informed the student she would have to present her poem privately to the teacher in lieu of presenting to the entire class.

According to the student, Wolf proceeded to tell her she would not even be allowed to be present in class Thursday while the other students presented their poems. 

The student said she was told by Wolf, “So you’re just going to sit outside while the other kids are reading their poems.” 

After the student pushed back asking why she wasn’t going to be allowed to simply be present in the classroom to listen to the other students’ poems, the teacher acquiesced, but reiterated, “…but you cannot read your poem.”

“It felt like I was being punished,” the student said. “It didn’t feel like I was being respected in any way ‘cuz it was, like, I was being excluded simply because I wrote a poem she (Wolf) didn’t like.”

Caskey expressed concern that her daughter’s speech was stifled for political reasons, while previous class lessons had explicitly taught contentious topics, including transgender ideology and racism.

Classroom lesson defended as “educational, not political”

Approximately one month before the SLAM poem assignment, the same 7th grade honors English Language Arts class was taught a lesson titled, “What to know about dehumanizing language.” 

The lesson guided students to understand dehumanizing language to include “microaggressions” and was represented by discrimination in the form of “…comments or actions that negatively affect someone, typically a marginalized group of people,” which include groups “…living at the margins of those in the center of power.” 

The lesson stated that marginalized groups were determined by race, gender, or sexual orientation and provided, “…a teacher ignoring a transgender person and instead helping a cisgender person…first,” as an example of dehumanizing behavior.

Images from a 7th grade honors English lesson on “dehumanizing language,” shared with RMV by the Caskey family.

Caskey emailed Wolf on April 20 and expressed concern over the political nature of the “dehumanizing language” assignment and requested that her child not be provided any additional political material. 

Wolf responded and defended the “dehumanizing language” lesson, stating in an April 21 email, “The purpose of these texts is educational, not political.”

Screenshot of email from Jeffco teacher Laura Wolf to parent Jacki Caskey.

From 20 classmates to millions online

On Tuesday, Motley told the family the school hoped the student would present her poem to her family, “…and, like, with anybody that you feel, like, would be impacted by it,” while reiterating, “…that’s just not going to be in the classroom.” 

Tuesday night, the Caskeys shared their daughter’s poem and story in a series of videos featuring Caskey and her daughter which went viral after being shared by the X account LibsofTikTok. As of publication, the Caskeys’ story has amassed over 2,800,000 views.

“It was nice going from not even [being] able to share to 20 other classmates — to being able to share it to, basically, the world,” the student said.

A family story behind the poem

The pro-life message of the poem is deeply personal to the Caskey family. Caskey’s biological mother was 14 when she became pregnant with Caskey, eventually giving her up for adoption after she was born. “I wouldn’t be here today if she lived in the climate that we live in now, because mostly people would say that she should have aborted me, she should have done away with me,” said Caskey in one of the viral videos.

The 13-year-old student told RMV, “I’m just so glad that my biological grandmother said yes to life…because I wouldn’t be here if she didn’t…and I’m a child of God.”

Why the family decided to speak publicly

The family chose to go public after the school made clear the poem would not be allowed alongside the other student presentations. “We have to share our story because otherwise things will not change. Why is the school silencing some kids and platforming others? We’ve lost the ability to hear from other perspectives and to disagree without dismissing each other.”

Caskey hopes their story will encourage parents to closely evaluate what teachers are teaching their kids. She believes that Jeffco Schools and Drake Middle School should provide students of all political persuasions with the opportunity to read and discuss ideas — and she told the school that herself. 

Caskey’s message to Colorado parents? “I encourage parents to dig deeper…be curious and look at the class material. Be aware.”