Teachers in a Denver-area school district organized a sick-out last week to protest a new conservative majority on the local school board.
The protest forced Douglas County School District to cancel classes on Thursday last week while the teachers organized a protest outside the district headquarters.
The newly installed conservative majority had wasted no time implementing a slew of policy changes, including eliminating the district’s mask mandate, drawing the ire of the teachers, the Colorado Gazette reported.
WORRIED PARENTS TAKE OVER SCHOOL BOARD SEATS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
The board had also moved to remove the district’s longtime superintendent and overhauled the policy on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The move to oust Superintendent Corey Wise proved to be among the most controversial, with a petition on Change.org to recall the board collecting over 22,000 signatures by Monday morning.
“It’s clear the board will not listen to our voices or pleas,” the organizer of the petition wrote in the description. “I refuse to teach my children the solution to their problems is to just do whatever you want even if it means break the law and no consequences.”
The three liberal members on the seven-member school board alleged three conservative members met in secret to inform Wise he had to resign or be fired, in violation of state open meeting laws. Wise was fired Friday.
Kevin DiPasquale, the president of the Douglas County Federation, a chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said the protest was a “difficult decision” but was done “to take a stand against actions that are harmful to students and staff.”
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten weighed in on the controversy in a tweet, saying the Douglas County school board “placed politics ahead of the needs of students and educators.”
The new school board in Douglass County placed politics ahead of the needs of students and educators. https://t.co/4LXERMTdgw
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) February 6, 2022
At least 1,500 teachers participated in the sick-out, CPR reported. The district has a teacher workforce of over 3,300.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In 2021, conservative parents won dozens of school board races across the country while campaigning on platforms that promised to eliminate school mask mandates, keep schools open, and ban critical race theory from classroom instruction.
