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VSSA teacher apologizes—debate persists over classroom remarks about Charlie Kirk and Trump
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

VSSA teacher apologizes—debate persists over classroom remarks about Charlie Kirk and Trump

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice A storm continues to brew at Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy (VSSA) after a longtime teacher’s controversial remarks in class. The comments came shortly after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated, setting off heated debate in the community about free speech, professional boundaries, and accountability in schools. The issue dominated last Wednesday night’s school board meeting, where the teacher publicly apologized but many parents and students left split over whether she should keep her job. Public apology follows superintendent’s rebuke At the September 24 meeting, Superintendent Philip Qualman called the remarks “unacceptable, inappropriate, and unprofessional.” He told the audience the district had followe...
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Evergreen students return to school surrounded by community support
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Evergreen students return to school surrounded by community support

By Sage Kelley | The Denver Gazette Evergreen High School students returned to campus on Thursday morning, two weeks after a shooting shocked the small town. Parents stood on the sideline, holding signs of support. More than 100 posters from Colorado cities, spanning from Telluride to Steamboat Springs, lined the school’s halls, sharing condolences and words of encouragement. “It was difficult, for sure,” Tyler Guyton, a senior and one of two student body presidents, said. “For the past week, people have been trying to ignore it, but it’s hard to ignore it when you’re back in the school and see the posters on the wall, the new tiles and all that stuff.” The staff had returned to the school Monday. Thursday and Friday are “gradual” days for the students, with classes onl...
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DPS Announced Convicted Felon as Interim Principal Before Quickly Reversing Decision
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

DPS Announced Convicted Felon as Interim Principal Before Quickly Reversing Decision

By Nico Brambila | Denver Gazette Denver Public Schools central office administrators informed parents in May that Peter Castillo would be the new interim principal at Denver School of the Arts — but they either didn’t know, or failed to disclose, that the retired educator was a convicted felon, The Denver Gazette has learned. Officials with DPS said Castillo, 59, was never hired. The incident, though, has ignited fresh doubts — at a time when parents have raised transparency concerns — about how DPS screens its leaders and communicates with families. Parents say they trusted the central office to do its due diligence, only to learn Castillo was a convicted felon whose principal license was suspended after a DUI seriously injured another driver. The omission has amplified conce...
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D49 Moves to Protect Privacy With Biological Sex Bathroom Policy
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kdvr.com, Approved, Local

D49 Moves to Protect Privacy With Biological Sex Bathroom Policy

By Ashley Eberbach | KDVR FOX31 (COLORADO SPRINGS) — At a special meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 24, School District 49 (D49) voted to enact changes to its bathroom policy, which segregates bathrooms and other private spaces like locker rooms by biological sex. The changes to the district’s policy segregate private facilities according to students’ biological sex, though the district said single-stall bathrooms would be available at each school for any student who requests additional privacy. D49 said the policy allows the district to comply with Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs. “There is no perfect solution to this, there is no perfect answer,” said Lori Thompson, President of the D49 School Board. While many board members stressed the comp...
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Texas parents pressured by activist group to block conservative TPUSA chapter
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The Post Millennial, Approved, National

Texas parents pressured by activist group to block conservative TPUSA chapter

By Thomas Stevenson | The Post Millennial "Please please please send emails to two teachers who are rumored to have agreed to sponsoring a club that will sow division and hate among our students." The vice president of a local Democrat club in Texas Adults attempted to rally adults in a private Facebook group to pressure teachers at Stratford High School in Texas to refuse to sponsor a Turning Point USA chapter (known as Club America at the high school level) at the school. Details of the chat were leaked by adults into a private Facebook group page. They also spread falsehoods about the identity of the killer of Charlie Kirk, who founded TPUSA. Andrew Kolvet, spokesman for Turning Point USA and close friend to the late Charlie Kirk, said on X, "Some grown adults in...
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Kids’ mental health ER visits jumped 26% at Children’s Hospital Colorado this summer
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Kids’ mental health ER visits jumped 26% at Children’s Hospital Colorado this summer

By Erica Breunlin | The Colorado Sun Summer usually marks a quiet time for mental health programs at Children’s Hospital Colorado. This year, the hospital system saw more students with more severe struggles. A surge of kids struggling with mental health crises spent part of their summer in the emergency department at Children’s Hospital Colorado — a season medical professionals say is typically quiet with a lull in patients. Children’s Hospital Colorado reported a 26% uptick in children showing up at the emergency department because of mental health challenges between June and July this year compared with the same timeframe last year. And the number of kids needing inpatient care at the hospital system jumped more than 55% from 2020 to 2024, according to data provided by the hospi...
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Education funds drained by bureaucrats while kids fall behind
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New York Post, Approved, Commentary, National

Education funds drained by bureaucrats while kids fall behind

By Post Editorial Board | Commentary, New York Post If you think spending more money on America’s schools will lead to greater student achievement, guess again: A new analysis of 12,000-plus school districts shows just the opposite. Not only does more spending not correlate with better student performance, turns out it coincides with moderately worse performance. The public-policy watchdog Open the Books looked at payroll growth at 12,531 public-school districts from 2019 to 2023, and compared it to the percentage change in the district rankings on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams, the gold standard for measuring reading and math proficiency of fourth and eighth graders. Guess what: The greater the payroll growth, the more...
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Denver School Board Election Could Transform District Leadership
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Local, Approved, The Denver Gazette

Denver School Board Election Could Transform District Leadership

By Nico Brambila | The Denver Gazette With four of seven board seats on the ballot this fall — and frustrations simmering over school closures, low test scores and board transparency — November’s election could reshape Denver Public Schools and chart a new course for the state’s largest school district. It’s a crowded field. Thirteen candidates have filed, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. One of them — Samari Royal Jelks Sr., who filed to run for the at-large seat held by Director Scott Esserman — said he has withdrawn from the race, but as of Monday remained listed as a candidate. Esserman, a former educator elected at-large in 2021, is now running in District 3, represented by board President Carrie Olson. Olson, in her eighth year, is term-limited and c...
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The Union vs. Students: Why I Walked Away
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

The Union vs. Students: Why I Walked Away

By Priscilla Rahn, M.Ed, NBCT | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice For 32 years I poured my life into teaching, believing the teachers’ union stood for students and educators like me. But somewhere along the way, the mission shifted—from strengthening classrooms to fueling politics. That’s when I knew I had to walk away. I look back on a career that began in Texas in the early 1990s, where my starting salary was a meager $18,000 a year—barely enough to cover student loans, a car payment, gas, rent, food, and utilities after dividing it into 24 paychecks, leaving me with about $700 every two weeks. I was immediately pressured to join the teachers' union, but with no extra money for dues, I declined. It wasn't until I moved to Colorado that I joined, convinced I needed liabilit...
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District 49 Staff Disciplined Over Alleged Approval of Charlie Kirk Assassination
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The Gazette, Approved, Local

District 49 Staff Disciplined Over Alleged Approval of Charlie Kirk Assassination

By Ashleigh Quintana, KOAA | The Gazette Two staff members at School District 49 are on administrative leave following reports that they approved of the Charlie Kirk assassination. Kirk, a conservative activist, was shot and killed Wednesday during a speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem. The suspect, identified as Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody on Thursday night, about 33 hours after the shooting, FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters. The agency had received more than 11,000 tips as of Friday morning, the most since the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, he said. According to Gazette new partner KOAA, D-49 said on Friday that the following statement was released to families at The Campus, which includes the Springs Studio for Academic Excellence and the Pik...
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