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While she fought cancer, a Durango teacher moved in on her child
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

While she fought cancer, a Durango teacher moved in on her child

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice When Colorado mom Cindy Stein sat before state lawmakers last spring, she was still recovering from cancer—and from losing her child to a teacher’s influence in a system that no longer sees parents as essential. “While I was fighting for my life, this teacher inserted herself into my daughter’s world, convincing her to reject me and her family,” Stein told the Senate Judiciary Committee.  https://twitter.com/OffThePress1/status/1917709537177424184 The clip spread quickly online. A month earlier, the Daily Wire broke the story, exposing what she says Durango schools tried to keep quiet. When a teacher’s comfort crossed a line Stein says her 16-year-old met Durango High School math teacher Joanne Smotherman while she was enduring...
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“They don’t care”: Unleashed podcast spotlights Durango parents’ loss of trust
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

“They don’t care”: Unleashed podcast spotlights Durango parents’ loss of trust

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Hunter Opilla didn’t expect to speak at a school board meeting when his family moved to Durango two years ago. But after learning about the district’s gender bathroom policy—and the board’s decision to reverse a superintendent directive—he says he felt he had no choice. “Just blank stares,” Opilla recalled on a recent episode of Heidi Ganahl’s Unleashed podcast. “The board never responded to my emails.” Ganahl’s latest podcast brings together a concerned father and a charter school founder to unpack what they call a pattern of political overreach and parental exclusion in Durango Schools. The conversation echoes issues previously covered by Rocky Mountain Voice in its Dirty Dozen series and recent reporting on board transparency and trust. Th...
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