Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Colorado Civil Rights Division

A missing email and a federal paper trail: Colorado weighs discipline in Guggenheim case
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

A missing email and a federal paper trail: Colorado weighs discipline in Guggenheim case

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Rich Guggenheim says an email exists that would end his case. The Colorado Department of Agriculture says it does not. The dispute centers on a message Guggenheim says was sent to him in early December by Gabriel Leverance, a grant accountant at CDA, instructing him to approve a USDA-funded Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey report—the report he had previously kicked back and now at the center of the discipline the department is weighing against him. Guggenheim says he requested records twice under CORA that he believes should have included the email. At an April 15 disciplinary hearing, he told the department’s deputy commissioner: “I know it exists, because I’m the recipient of that email, and I’m not getting it in a CORA reques...
State bill creates new path for school discrimination complaints, sparks debate over harassment standard
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, ...