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Tag: Parental Rights

Christian Camp IdRaHaJe sues Colorado over forced gender policy: ‘Let us uphold biblical truth’
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Approved, Local, National Catholic Register

Christian Camp IdRaHaJe sues Colorado over forced gender policy: ‘Let us uphold biblical truth’

By Tyler Arnold | National Catholic Register A Christian summer camp network is suing the Colorado government over a state rule allowing males who identify as girls to be given access to girls’ showers, dressing areas, and sleeping facilities. Camp IdRaHaJe — which separates private facilities on the basis of sex rather than self-asserted “gender identity” — filed the federal lawsuit against Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood on Monday. The camp, which derives its name from the 1922 Christian hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” is protesting a regulation that requires access to gender-separated showers, sleeping facilities, changing rooms, and bathrooms in all children’s resident camps on the basis of “an individual’s gender identity” even when the gender identity is dif...
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Notarfrancesco: TRAILS goes beyond SEL—it’s activism wrapped in therapy language
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Approved, Commentary, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Notarfrancesco: TRAILS goes beyond SEL—it’s activism wrapped in therapy language

By Kelly Notarfrancesco | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Should teachers in Colorado K-12 classrooms be performing daily assessments on the thoughts and feelings of your children? At the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, Pueblo D70 School District controversially implemented a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum which Superintendent Ronda Rein described in an email from September 24, 2024 as a “daily assessment of thoughts and feelings.” SEL is promoted to parents and school administrators as the panacea for kids’ mental health concerns, and SEL advocates believe the concepts benefit students by providing important emotional training which leads to academic success, healthy relationships, and proper civic engagement. Opponents of SEL are concerned that the le...
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Sencenbaugh: DEI and CRT may sound noble, but they’re driving academic mediocrity in schools
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Sencenbaugh: DEI and CRT may sound noble, but they’re driving academic mediocrity in schools

By Robert Sencenbaugh | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice If you are on the left or the right, Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the average classroom does not look like one tends to believe. Both are far more subtle. Thus, any debate on these issues devolves into both sides yelling at one another with neither actually listening. During a House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) declared, “We can stop with the nonsense because K-12 was not teaching critical race theory…in our country K-12 is not learning critical race theory. Just for those who are unfamiliar.”  Having taught in both Texas and Colorado, I can tell you that she is not being completely honest. While she is correct ...
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Enos: Colorado’s 2025 session pushed the most woke agenda we’ve ever seen
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Approved, Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Commentary, State

Enos: Colorado’s 2025 session pushed the most woke agenda we’ve ever seen

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado “Woke” does not begin to describe the ideological beliefs of the majority in the Colorado legislature. They have become bold in their desire to reorder our lives in accordance with two basic ideological beliefs. First, there is no intrinsic value to human life. It is a commodity to be disposed of at will, and the destruction of pre-born life is a required service in every emergency room. Second, there is no such thing as a person’s sex; it is merely a “gender identity” seen through “gender expression.” Ryan Anderson explains that the origins of “trans” thinking come from cultural breakdown and fear, among other things. “Too many people were afraid to say that the emperor has no clothes,” he reasons. The...
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Notarfrancesco: Pueblo D70 Schools handed kids’ emotional data to political NGOs without parental consent
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Approved, Commentary, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Notarfrancesco: Pueblo D70 Schools handed kids’ emotional data to political NGOs without parental consent

By Kelly Notarfrancesco | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice  It is said there is no such thing as a free lunch.  One small school district in Pueblo, Colorado, recently learned that a free lunch can be served with a side of community outrage. When the Pueblo D70 Board of Education unanimously voted in March of 2024 to “accept” a significant in-kind gift of $700,000 from the organization TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students), did they realize what they were implementing in district classrooms?  D70 accepted a “gift” of controversial psychosocial educational content, financed and promoted by multi-million-dollar non-governmental organizations dedicated to transforming the world through social change.    The...
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Colorado Republicans: Effort to save taxpayers money ‘shredded’ by Democrats this session
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Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Colorado Republicans: Effort to save taxpayers money ‘shredded’ by Democrats this session

By Marianne Goodland | Denver Gazette Republican lawmakers, who are in the minority at the state Capitol, said they saw little success in their campaign to save residents money this year, as Democrats "shredded" that goal. At the beginning of the session, Republicans unveiled a series of measures that, they insisted, would save the average Colorado family $4,500 each year. "We had hopes to make life more affordable," said Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen of Monument. The agenda included measures to repeal the state's grocery bag ban and undo a retail delivery fee, ride share fees, and regulations around cage-free eggs. They also sought reductions in energy and utility costs, and pushed to reduce and — eventually repeal — the state income tax and the state tax on Social ...
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Gimelshteyn: CPAN files federal complaint over D70’s deceptive TRAILS program violating rights
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Approved, Commentary, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Gimelshteyn: CPAN files federal complaint over D70’s deceptive TRAILS program violating rights

By Lori Gimelshteyn | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice On April 25th, the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network (CPAN) filed a formal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), urging an investigation into Pueblo County School District 70 (D70) and its use of the “Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students Social Emotional Learning” (TRAILS) program.  Our complaint is a direct response to the district’s reckless decision to embed this program into classrooms without parental consent, without transparency, and in direct violation of federal law. TRAILS, which was deceptively marketed as a “gift” to the district, is directly connected to the Tides Foundation, a radical political nonprofit. Under TRAILS,...
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Cole: The hidden risks of gender-affirming care demand Colorado’s restraint
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Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Cole: The hidden risks of gender-affirming care demand Colorado’s restraint

By Shaina Cole | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado has embraced gender-affirming care for minors, covering treatments like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and, in rare cases, surgeries through Medicaid and other state programs.  While intended to address gender dysphoria, these interventions pose significant long-term dangers to children, potentially causing irreversible harm, with limited evidence of sustained mental health benefits. The rise in gender identity issues among minors may be fueled by social media influence, mental health challenges, and parental dynamics, raising concerns about premature medical decisions.  Given the lack of long-term data and children’s developmental vulnerabilities, we must restrict these treatments to rare, extreme c...
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Sturm: Wisdom gained after debating a Pronoun Policy as a theater company board member
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Approved, Commentary, State, Substack

Sturm: Wisdom gained after debating a Pronoun Policy as a theater company board member

By Melanie Sturm | Commentary, Substack What would you do if the state called you an unfit parent — not for hurting your child, but for refusing to pretend your daughter is your son? That’s the reality Colorado families could soon face under a bill advancing in the state legislature. And in Maryland, the Supreme Court is now weighing whether parents have any say at all over LGBTQ content taught in elementary school. Policies once dismissed as fringe are ubiquitous. Silence shouldn’t become complicity. Two summers ago, I saw where this leads — not while in a courtroom, but around a boardroom table. I’d served on the board of a beloved theater company for over two decades. Then one day, a concerned parent forwarded me the children’s program Pronoun Policy, which required kids ...
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Backlash ignored: Senate approves HB25-1312 without parental rights protections
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Backlash ignored: Senate approves HB25-1312 without parental rights protections

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Proponents hail the bill as a civil rights milestone for transgender youth. But Republicans say it strips parental rights, embeds compelled speech into law and threatens custody in future court cases. After weeks of public backlash, failed compromise efforts, and a marathon Senate floor debate, Colorado lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to HB25-1312 – a bill that critics say severs parents from decisions about their children’s identities in school. The bill passed its final Senate vote on Tuesday with no additional debate or amendments. The House voted to concur with all Senate amendments and repassed the bill without further changes, sending it to Governor Jared Polis. The final version no longer includes the family court and out-of-s...
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