Widefield Education Association (WEA) has obtained emails from the Widefield school board via the Colorado Open Records Act. The emails reveal disturbing conversations among school board members involving creationism, book banning, Moms for Liberty, delaying the implementation of Title IX protections for transgender people, and other possible skirtings of law. WEA is consulting with CEA lawyers and plans further actions against this unhinged school board, especially the “IHOP Three.”
Please attend the public meeting of Support Widefield Students on Monday at 6 PM at the IHOP on 85 – 87. The Widefield Education Association (WEA) has obtained emails from the Widefield school board members that reveal the following:
1) We have found evidence that some board members may be using religious beliefs, including the belief in creationism, to guide their actions as board members. They may be interested in delaying the implementation of Title IX changes that protect Transgender people. They are avoiding trainings on LGBTQ+ students, instead citing religious materials to reject such trainings. These board members are acting in defiance of the separation of church and state. They may be acting in defiance of equal protection and anti-discrimination laws. They are certainly acting in defiance of the mission of public education, which is to provide a secular education regardless of the religious or non-religious background of the students.
2) We have found evidence that school board members may be further skirting the Colorado Open Records Act to engage with people who want to push religious doctrines on public schools. These school board members may have already skirted the Colorado Open Meetings Law earlier this year at their IHOP meeting. Now they may be conducting discussions as board members using personal email addresses. When school board members use personal email addresses to discuss board business, that information may not be easily discoverable through the Colorado Open Records Act. Furthermore, those emails may not be retained for the legally required period of time.
3) We have found evidence that some school board members may be interested in investigating a list of potentially bannable books. They may be pushing to change the way that books are banned in Widefield.
4) We believe that the district provided an incomplete response to our request under the Colorado Open Records Act.
WEA is consulting with lawyers at the Colorado Education Association about further action.
WEA encourages all members to attend the public meeting on Monday. We will discuss some details of the school board emails. We will also make plans with the Support Widefield Students group. We, the people of Widefield, must bring our petition to the school board with a large number of signatures, so that we can show the strength of the public’s concern about the behavior of the school board members.
For further information about recent Widefield politics, check out the following sources: