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In a 1,200-word missive emailed this week to party members, leaders of Colorado’s Republican Party threatened to sue Durango School District 9-R over the district’s consideration of adopting symbols that seek to include black, brown and LGBTQ students and staff.
The rabble-rousing email called queer students mentally ill, claimed that the Black Lives Matter movement “makes most students feel unsafe”; and posited without evidence that “statistics show that these ‘trans’ kids are being radicalized and used to kill people.”
It was signed by Darcy Schoening, the party’s director of special initiatives and former chair of the El Paso County Moms for Liberty chapter, and Hope Scheppelman, the state party’s vice chair who also sits on the executive committee of the La Plata County Republican Central Committee.
“Stop using kids who are struggling and need help, to satisfy your sexual fetishes,” the email stated. “Stop promoting racism, to look equitable. (The BLM protests of) 2021 is over, Kamala Harris lost, the trans lie lost, and no one buys this fake racism anymore. It is time to get serious about your jobs. We will sue the district, and each school board member personally, as well as any staff member, teacher, or superintendent who supports and uses this policy to hurt children.”
The party has tried to link the alleged crimes of a former 9-R teacher who is facing federal charges for the suspected sexual exploitation of a student to the flag debate, but has provided no evidence linking the two.
The school board issued a terse statement in response.
“We appreciate your organization sharing your viewpoint as we work toward a solution that aligns with the Board's commitments to our students, staff, families, and community,” the response read in full.
Scheppelman did not respond to requests for comment.
Shoening, in an email to The Durango Herald, said her message to sue was a promise, and not a threat.
“I made firm promises to deliver justice – to professionally and personally bankrupt the district and any staff member for promoting more transgender and anti-white violence,” she wrote.
She issued a warning of sorts, writing “you have less than a month to continue your sordid pedophiliac deeds. We and the Trump administration will be dealing with you all, and your rainbow-haired kids who are being groomed whilst grooming others can find a new platform for their fetishes.”
Colorado’s GOP was mobilized by the unveiling earlier this month of two proposed resolutions at a 9-R board meeting. The resolution, if adopted, would codify the rights of teachers to display the Black Lives Matter flag and an iteration of the LGBTQ pride flag, known as the progress pride flag, in schools.
The progress pride flag contains a white, pink and light blue stripe to represent the transgender community, as well as symbolism recognizing intersex people and communities of color.
The district came under fire earlier this year when officials directed staff to remove those two symbols from classrooms because they could be interpreted as the district allowing political speech by teachers. By adopting a resolution that enshrines the inclusion of the groups represented on those flags as an official position of the district, board members hope the district can support Black, brown and LGBTQ communities while still barring the unregulated display of political symbols.
Of the board’s five members, two – Katie Stewart and Andrea Parmenter – are registered Democrats. The other three are unaffiliated.
The primary thrust of the GOP’s threat is that the resolutions violate the Equal Protection Clause enshrined in the 14th Amendment, which ensures equal treatment under the law of individuals in similar circumstances.
Party officials contend that 9-R could violate that clause “by promoting an anti-religious fetish” which cannot be sanctioned because it “goes against Christianity and many other religions.
The 14th Amendment states, in part, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Although the matter of whether the equal treatment of one group unreasonably tramples upon that of another has been raised repeatedly, it is not clear that federal courts would side with the GOP in a potential lawsuit.
In the 2015 decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that it was the right to free speech maintained by those who opposed the decision that ensures their proper protection under law.
Neither signatory to Monday’s email seemingly have children in a 9-R school, and thus may lack standing to proceed with a lawsuit. The email called upon parents of Durango 9-R kids to come as plaintiffs.
Shoening said that doesn’t matter.
“If you believe that only those who live in the district should be offended by weak and hyper-sexual school board members who promote mental illness, then you should re-read the Constitution,” she wrote. “The Founders wrote rights for us all to live freely, freely from violence and racism perpetrated by the BLM and trans communities.”
(The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published in 2013 does not classify being transgender as a mental illness and states “gender non-conformity is not in itself a mental disorder.”)
The board of education has a work session, at which it will not accept public comment, on Jan. 14. A regular meeting is scheduled for Jan. 28.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
