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Tag: Parental Rights

D-11 school board votes to adopt policy requiring sports participation based on biological sex
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Approved, denvergazette.com, Local

D-11 school board votes to adopt policy requiring sports participation based on biological sex

By Grace Brajkovich | Denver Gazette During a special meeting on Wednesday, Colorado Springs' District 11 became the second El Paso County school district to approve a new policy requiring students to participate in school sports based on their biological sex. The D-11 Board of Education voted 6-1 to approve policy JBA-Preserving Fairness and Safety in Sports, which will classify sports teams as either “male, men or boys,” “female, women or girls” or “coed, mixed or open.” This will ensure that students aren’t allowed to participate in sports, be present in locker rooms, or lodge in hotels with the opposite biological sex.    Board Director Julie Ott cast the only dissenting vote.  "This policy is illegal. It goes against Colorado law. This poli...
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Jacques: Colorado’s speech police aren’t protecting rights—they’re punishing dissent
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Approved, Commentary, State, USA Today

Jacques: Colorado’s speech police aren’t protecting rights—they’re punishing dissent

By Ingrid Jacques | Commentary, USA Today Colorado has threatened to sic the thought police on anyone who doesn't comply by using state-approved language about transgender people. You’d think that after two significant losses at the U.S. Supreme Court, Colorado would tread more carefully with its anti-discrimination laws.  No such luck. A new law, signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in May, expands the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act to make deadnaming and misgendering transgender individuals a punishable offense. California, not surprisingly, has tried something similar but on a more limited basis. The updated Colorado provisions have already attracted lawsuits on the grounds that the law violates the U.S. Constitution, includ...
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False claims, real consequences: Judge rejects activist’s First Amendment defense
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

False claims, real consequences: Judge rejects activist’s First Amendment defense

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice El Paso County judge rejects motion to dismiss defamation suit against Bernadette Guthrie, ruling that calling a school board member a “child predator” is not protected by the First Amendment. For more than a year, Derrick Wilburn – father, community leader and now an elected school board member – was publicly branded a “child predator” by a vocal district parent. The accusations, repeated at school board meetings, online and even in state legislative testimony, painted him as a man who preyed on children.  Wilburn filed a defamation lawsuit in December 2024, seeking accountability. And on April 29, a Colorado judge drew a legal line.  El Paso County District Court Judge Gregory Werner denied defendant Bernadette Guthrie’s motion...
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Boll: Colorado calls it protection. Parents call it betrayal.
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Approved, Commentary, State, Substack, Top Stories

Boll: Colorado calls it protection. Parents call it betrayal.

By Laureen Boll | Commentary, Genspect Colorado is increasingly unhinged when it comes to gender Imagine the nightmare: You learn that your 17-year-old daughter, with whom you’ve always shared a deep, loving bond, has embarked upon an intimate relationship with her female teacher—a deeply inappropriate situation under any circumstances. But instead of acting to safeguard your child, school officials secretly label her “homeless” to allow her to move in with the teacher, withholding the truth from you. Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality for one Jefferson County, Colorado, family. When the parent uncovered the deception and confronted the high school principal, they were met with a shocking defense: the teacher was simply “helping kids explore their sexual identity.” Some ...
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“Not one mention of sexual abuse”: Parents slam Jeffco union as Title IX storm builds
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Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

“Not one mention of sexual abuse”: Parents slam Jeffco union as Title IX storm builds

By Heidi Ganahl, Rocky Mountain Voice Jeffco Public Schools is at the center of a storm as teachers and parents clash with Superintendent Tracy Dorland over leadership, transparency, and the district’s handling of cultural and safety concerns.  Tensions hit a breaking point on May 29, when the Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA)—representing roughly a quarter of Jeffco’s 5,000 teachers—declared a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Tracy Dorland. The move came just days before news broke of a federal Title IX investigation into the district. Union leaders accused her of top-down leadership, fostering instability, and eroding trust. They highlighted high turnover in central office staff, the rejection of a board-approved policy on ICE protocols, and the rollback ...
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Enos: Colorado’s war on parental rights isn’t over—it’s escalating
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Approved, Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Commentary, State

Enos: Colorado’s war on parental rights isn’t over—it’s escalating

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado Colorado is on a roll. Violating religious liberty and compelling free speech are two issues that Colorado Courts have already been reprimanded for. Our Courts lost two civil rights lawsuits – Masterpiece Cake Shop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission and 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis – in addition to being overturned by the United States Supreme Court in the decision that was supposed to throw Donald Trump off the 2024 Colorado Presidential Election ballot. Now, we are doing it all over again. On Friday, May 16th, Governor Polis quietly signed HB25-1312, Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals, into law. There was no ceremony or statement from the Governor, just an administrative signature. When...
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Vote of no confidence for JeffCo Superintendent Dorland follows union letter calling it necessary
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Approved, kdvr.com, Local

Vote of no confidence for JeffCo Superintendent Dorland follows union letter calling it necessary

By Carly Moore | Fox31 JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Tracy Dorland was given a vote of no confidence by a teachers’ union during a meeting Thursday night. Dorland has been in the position since April 2021, but last night the Jefferson County Public Schools teachers’ union said they’re not pleased with the overall direction the district is going. In a letter to the district board of directors on their website, the Jefferson County Education Association Representative Council and Operational Board said the vote of confidence was a necessary step. The letter said that under Dorland’s leadership, there is a disconnect between administration, education and families, and that her leadership has exacerbated tensions and damaged the dis...
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Schaffer’s ‘unsafe school choice’ policy gets new life under Trump
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Approved, Education Week, National

Schaffer’s ‘unsafe school choice’ policy gets new life under Trump

By Evie Blad | Education Week When the Trump administration urged states to use a little-known provision in federal education law to boost school choice, the congressman who helped author the language 24 years ago had an immediate reaction. “It’s about time,” said former Congressman Bob Schaffer. In a May 7 letter, Acting Assistant Education Secretary Hayley B. Sanon urged states to ease their criteria for labeling schools as “persistently dangerous"—a designation that legally comes with an obligation to offer families an option to transfer to another public school. “The number of persistently dangerous schools reported nationwide appears low particularly given the number of violent offenses in schools reported” in federal data, she wrote. It’s a message that Schaffer, ...
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Buck: Woke school policies now sweeping Middle America
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Approved, National, The Wall Street Journal

Buck: Woke school policies now sweeping Middle America

By Daniel Buck | Commentary, Wall Street Journal Schools in Wauwatosa, Wis., embrace far-left fads from ‘gender identity’ to ‘restorative justice.’ One question persists in American education: How pervasive are the stories of kindergartners learning about transgenderism or high-schoolers waving Hamas flags in hallways? Among the four million teachers in the U.S. there will inevitably be cranks and ideologues who mistake their lectern for a pulpit. Examination of a typical American school district in a typical American town reveals that the progressive mismanagement of school districts extends beyond the dark-blue borders of San Francisco and Portland, Ore. Recent Census data demonstrate that Wauwatosa, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee, is about as average as it gets. It’s politically s...
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Hunt: Governor signs laws advancing trans agenda, sparking constitutional challenge
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Approved, Commentary, State, TownHall.com

Hunt: Governor signs laws advancing trans agenda, sparking constitutional challenge

By Nicole Hunt | Commentary, Townhall Just as a refreshing wave of reality-based, commonsense policy seems to be sweeping the nation, Colorado lawmakers are doubling down on “trans” policies that can only be described as absurd, unconscionable and unconstitutional. For those of us in Colorado who still believe in parental rights and free speech, the speed at which our state is descending into a dystopian nightmare is terrifying. Here in Colorado, transactivists control the State House, the Senate, and the governor’s seat. Whatever they want to do, however far they want to push the envelope, they can, and they did this legislative cycle. Some of the bills are so radical that even California’s governor refused to sign similar legislation. This session we saw two radical trans bil...
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