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Drake Middle School removed “America, Reloading.” Then another poem fight started.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Drake Middle School removed “America, Reloading.” Then another poem fight started.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Drake Middle School parents were told last year that students could write spoken-word poems about politics or divisive issues if they personally chose those topics. This spring, one DMS student wrote a pro-life poem about abortion. School officials told the student she could turn the poem in for credit, but could not read it aloud in class. Parents had already spent more than a year warning DMS and Jeffco leaders about the school’s SLAM poetry unit before the story spread nationally. Parents objected to SLAM poetry unit in 2025 Parents began emailing DMS leadership in 2025 after students watched “America, Reloading” and “The Star Spanglish Banner” in class. One email sent to teacher Tanisha Lee and DMS principal Jill Kline des...
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Tina Peters Thanks Polis Accuses Democrats Of Silencing Dissent
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Approved, DENVER7, State

Tina Peters Thanks Polis Accuses Democrats Of Silencing Dissent

By Óscar Contreras | Denver7 Denver7 continues to follow developments since the disgraced former Mesa County Clerk and 2020 election denier was granted clemency by the governor last week. DENVER — Former Mesa County Clerk and 2020 election denier Tina Peters spoke out for the first time since her commutation last week, accusing Colorado Democrats of an election cover-up while defending Gov. Jared Polis for reducing her nine-year prison sentence. In a post on X, Peters accused state Democrats of putting “a bullseye on a 70-year-old, nonviolent, first-time offender” and said Democrats were attacking Gov. Polis for showing mercy. “Doesn’t that make you wonder why? It should be obvious to Democrats and Republicans alike that they have something to hide,” Peters wrote. “It is so obv...
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A Person’s a Person No Matter How Small
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Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

A Person’s a Person No Matter How Small

By Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice This story is not merely about a brave young girl gone viral for a poignant poem. It is about a canary in a coal mine gasping for air as the poisons of a culture increasingly unable to tolerate truth swirl ever thicker in the atmosphere around it. When a 7th grader is barred from presenting a poem titled “A life is a life, no matter how small” to her Honors English classmates because it defended unborn life, Colorado should take stock of its condition. In a Jeffco district claiming that “all students…feel that their voices and perspectives are valued,” the promotion of life itself was deemed too offensive. A healthy civilization does not fear competing moral arguments. It does not silence peaceful dissent or require instit...
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Jeffco student barred from reading pro-life poem after school calls it “too politically charged”
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Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Jeffco student barred from reading pro-life poem after school calls it “too politically charged”

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...
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Citizenship requires more than showing up angry
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Undercurrent, Approved, Commentary, National

Citizenship requires more than showing up angry

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack There is a strange contradiction in American life. We have never had more access to political information, yet we seem to understand government less. We have never had more ways to speak, yet we seem less capable of persuasion. We invoke rights constantly, yet we speak less often of duties. We demand accountability from every institution except, perhaps, ourselves. This is the condition of modern citizenship: loud, aggrieved, suspicious, emotional — and often poorly formed. The usual diagnosis is apathy. Americans do not vote enough. They do not attend local meetings. They cannot name their representatives. They do not understand the difference between a city council and a county commission, a school board and a state legislat...
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These are the times that try men’s souls
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories

These are the times that try men’s souls

By Mark Salley | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Do all Democrats hate the country? Surely not. Do all Democrats hate Donald J. Trump? Of course not. But many — perhaps most — do! This hate has got to stop! What has Trump-hate led to? During the first administration, the hatred led to frivolous attempts to impeach him in 2019. Frivolous because the evidence being used to justify an impeachment was MANUFACTURED by leftist Democrats who hate Trump and wanted him to fail. This Trump-hate continues to lead numerous renegade judges to create needless injunctions to Trump-backed measures that would greatly benefit our country and our culture. As of April 21, lawfaremedia.org states there are 316 active cases challenging Trump administration actions…including the ridiculo...
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Colorado Lawmakers Shift Strategy Push New Conversion Therapy Bill After Supreme Court Ruling
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Shift Strategy Push New Conversion Therapy Bill After Supreme Court Ruling

By Lucas Brady Woods | The Colorado Sun House Bill 1322 would allow patients to sue for damages if they suffer harm from conversion therapy, a controversial practice aimed at changing someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Dylan Scholinski creates their art in a creaky, old building in north Denver. A large studio space is packed with their work from over the years, including a set of mixed-media illustrations depicting dark, contorted figures. “This is like a hallway of the institution with the rooms, the room doors,” Scholinski said, flipping through several of them. The illustrations are based on Scholinski’s experience in psychiatric institutions as a teenager, where they underwent conversion therapy, a controversial practice meant to change some...
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Colorado Lawmakers Open Door To Unlimited Conversion Therapy Lawsuits After Supreme Court Ruling
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Open Door To Unlimited Conversion Therapy Lawsuits After Supreme Court Ruling

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–Despite the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) recently slapping down Colorado’s ban on so-called “conversion therapy,” legislative Democrats are taking yet another swing at influencing conversations mental health professionals have with clients around gender indentity. This time around, it’s the threat of lawsuits at any time in the future, and with no limit on potential damages. As previously reported by Complete Colorado, SCOTUS in March struck down a 2019 statute barring state licensed therapists from engaging in “efforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction”  The court held t...
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Free speech or state control?: Elon Musk lawsuit targets Colorado’s AI discrimination law
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Financial Times, Approved, State

Free speech or state control?: Elon Musk lawsuit targets Colorado’s AI discrimination law

By Alex Rogers and George Hammond | Financial Times Elon Musk’s AI lab claims the regulations violate free speech protections Elon Musk’s xAI has filed a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s landmark AI bill as the Trump administration and leading industry players try to stop US states from regulating the technology. Colorado’s bill, set to take effect in the summer, was the first state-level initiative passed to impose protections against “algorithmic discrimination” in AI systems. Musk’s AI lab, which recently merged with rocket group SpaceX, says the bill would force it to “promote the state’s ideological views on various matters, racial justice in particular” rather than its own “disinterested pursuit of truth”. The lawsuit is the latest move in a battle between ...
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