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Tag: Civil Rights Enforcement

Pickens Technical College signed a disability agreement. Then dismissed the student.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Pickens Technical College signed a disability agreement. Then dismissed the student.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Some mornings, she didn't know how she got to where she was. A Colorado Springs woman who asked to remain anonymous — referred to here as CSW — had been an EMT for more than a decade, a career she began while volunteering with a fire department. She shared dozens of emails documenting her case with RMV. What she was experiencing on the hour-long drive to Pickens Technical College in Aurora felt like a medical emergency of its own. Nodding off at the wheel. Reaction time slowed. Her sleep neurologist had documented a working diagnosis.  All she needed was to attend lectures by video on the days she couldn't safely make the drive. Pickens told her it wasn't possible. It was. A pregnant classmate had been allow...
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A Rodney King-era civil rights law drives the federal lawsuit over Colorado’s magazine ban
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

A Rodney King-era civil rights law drives the federal lawsuit over Colorado’s magazine ban

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado's magazine ban has been challenged before. The surprise this time is not the Second Amendment argument. It is the DOJ’s decision to use a federal civil-rights law traditionally aimed at police misconduct investigations to make it. On May 5, federal attorneys filed against Denver over its assault-weapons ban. The next morning, they were back in court with another complaint—this one against the state, over the 15-round magazine limit. The law driving both lawsuits came out of the aftermath of Rodney King. Congress passed §12601 in 1994 after Los Angeles erupted in riots, giving the federal government authority to intervene when police departments repeatedly violated constitutional rights. DOJ has used the law fewer than 100 times in t...
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State bill creates new path for school discrimination complaints, sparks debate over harassment standard
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

State bill creates new path for school discrimination complaints, sparks debate over harassment standard

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice House Bill 26-1141 cleared the House Education Committee last week on a 9–3 vote and now moves to the Appropriations Committee before it can reach the House floor. The proposal would create a state-level process for handling discrimination complaints in K–12 schools and higher education. Complaints would go through the Colorado Civil Rights Division. The agency could investigate, try to resolve cases through mediation, and, if necessary, allow a case to move into court. The proposal covers claims tied to legally protected characteristics — or even the perception that someone belongs to one of those groups. The categories aren’t new. They’re the same ones already written into Colorado’s civil rights law — race, ...
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