The Denver school board voted on Thursday to uphold the firing of a popular middle-school principal who tried to keep a student charged with attempted murder out of his school, and then spoke to a local news station about his safety concerns.
Denver Public Schools fired McAuliffe International School principal Kurt Dennis in July, three months after he told the local NBC news station that one of his students had been charged with attempted murder and various gun crimes. He said he and his employees were required to pat the child down every day, which they were not trained to do.
District leaders have said that Dennis was fired for divulging confidential information about the criminally charged student to the TV news reporter, which led to the student’s being identified and “singled out by faculty and staff and ostracized by his peers.” They’ve also implied that Dennis’s efforts to keep the “young student of color” out of the school were racially motivated.
Dennis and his supporters say that his termination was retaliation for speaking out.
At the end of Thursday’s school board meeting, the board members voted 6–1 to uphold Dennis’s termination. While Dennis has many supporters calling for his reinstatement, board member Charmaine Lindsay, who voted to uphold the firing, said “the majority of the people that we saw speaking out on behalf of Kurt were white.”
The people she’s interacted with, she said, “were afraid of retaliation for coming forward.”
But the focus of the board’s conversation on Thursday was not Dennis’s TV interview or the identification of the student charged with attempted murder. Instead, board members focused a new allegation that Dennis had created a “seclusion room” where students who were acting violently could calm down. Dennis has called the space a “de-escalation room” and has defended it as “district-sanctioned,” according to the Denver Post.
Dennis’s attorney, David Lane, told National Review that he expects to file a federal lawsuit against the district in the coming days. The district, he said, illegally retaliated against Dennis for speaking out. The allegations about the “seclusion room” are just the latest excuse, he said.
“I’m happy to give them every opportunity to make all of their excuses in federal court,” Lane said. “I will hold the door of the courthouse open for them.”
Board member Auon’tai Anderson recently received an anonymous tip about the room from a school employee, who claimed that minority students were locked inside it multiple times last year. Lane told National Review that only two students, one black and one white, were taken to the room to calm down. The school district, the Denver Police Department, and the Colorado Department of Education are investigating.
“We have to start believing our children. We have to start believing our black students, our Latinx students, our students of color when they say harm is being caused,” said board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who also voted to uphold Dennis’s termination.
Anderson described himself as “a black man who’s been placed in a room once before, who knows what it means to be in an isolation room.” He expressed his outrage about the alleged “seclusion room” by reading a poem he’d written, with lines that included “If every child isn’t your heartfelt song, perhaps Denver Public Schools isn’t where you belong,” “It pains my heart to know a child was in a cage, viewed as a spectacle, fury and rage,” and “The narrative of white supremacy looming so large. Children were tried and convicted without a proper charge.”
Lindsay said Dennis deserved due process. But even without a perfect understanding of the “seclusion room” situation, which she called “horrific and appalling,” she said she had enough information about the prior allegations to uphold Dennis’s firing.
The student charged with attempted murder also deserved due process, she said, and suffered “irreparable harm” when he was identified after Dennis’s TV interview.
Board member Scott Baldermann was the only vote against firing Dennis. He argued that the district had not properly followed its own policies, and he pushed back on his colleagues who held a press conference about the “seclusion room” before the district had finished investigating.
When asked about Anderson’s poem, Lane said he didn’t watch the board meeting, but “if poetic justice is what they seek, poetic justice is what they will get in federal court.”
Dennis told the Post that the “de-escalation” room was established in December because of a student who was acting “in such a violent nature that we needed a safe place when the student was having an episode.” The district allows de-escalation rooms, but the students must enter them voluntarily, an adult must be present, and the door must remain open, the paper reported.
The district’s policies prohibit “monitored seclusion,” the Post reported.
Lane said Dennis allowed the staff to close the door on a student if the student was being violent and was a danger to the employee. “What policy is silent about is, if the student in the de-escalation room remains violent and starts spitting at you and kicking you and hitting you, what are you supposed to do then?” Lane said. He called it a “rare occurrence.”
“Kurt used common sense and said nobody should have to put up with that, so just hold the door shut, keep him in the room, but monitor him through the window,” Lane said.
Lane said use of the room for the two students was approved in their individual education plans. “One of the parents has come out publicly thanking Kurt for de-escalating his child,” Lane said.
Dennis also told the Post that he initially placed a lock on the door but had it removed a couple of weeks after the room was established.
Dennis first made waves in March, two days after a 17-year-old student at a local high school shot two administrators who were patting him down. Dennis told the local NBC station about the student at his school who was facing an attempted-murder charge and who also had to be patted down every day. The McAuliffe student also faced charges involving assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a handgun, illegally discharging a gun, and motor-vehicle theft.
Dennis had tried to have the student expelled or required to take online classes, but district leaders refused because the student hadn’t brought a weapon to school.
Dennis did not name the student accused of attempted murder during the TV interview, and he did not provide any identifying features, including the student’s race or gender. But his termination documents state that the TV news story “highlights confidential documents to which you had access in your capacity as principal.” Those documents “helped the reporter and the McAuliffe International community to identify the student,” the termination letter states.
The Denver School Leaders Association, which represents Denver principals, has filed a grievance over Dennis’s firing.
During the last school year, Denver parents expressed increasing concerns about the deteriorating safety conditions inside the city’s schools.
Critics allege that Denver leaders have intentionally watered down their school-discipline policies for racial-justice reasons and are prioritizing keeping dangerous kids in school, compromising the safety of the rest of the student population.
At the beginning of Thursday’s meeting, the district’s safety director said the district is reintegrating school resource officers into its 13 public high schools. The Denver district cut ties with local police in wake of the racial-justice riots that erupted after George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis in 2020.
The following is the full text of Anderson’s poem, Aren’t All Children Allowed to Have a Bad Day?, as transcribed from Thursday’s school board meeting by National Review:
In the hallowed halls of McAuliffe International School, whispers circulate about a seclusion room
Echoing notions from a political fray, defending the one in the very same way
This is a witch hunt, they cry, the conspiracies aren’t true. Yet the talking points hint at a view askew
Defending a man, a leader misguided, while children of color are punished and silenced.
When they say “these kids,” we know who they mean, black and brown children whose dreams they demean
But let me paint you a tale so divine, of these very children who will rise and shine
Scientists, soldiers, creators of lore, teachers, thinkers and so much more
They’ll dream Dr. King’s dream, breaking the curse, walking Malcolm’s path and singing Mahalia’s verse
Yet some aim to vilify when they stumble or sway. But aren’t all children allowed to have a bad day?
The narrative of white supremacy looming so large. Children were tried and convicted without a proper charge
But remember the schools that lead with love pave the way, treating every child precious that come what may
If every child isn’t your heartfelt song, perhaps Denver Public Schools isn’t where you belong
For these children embody dreams of the past, ancestors’ hopes that will forever last
No one’s above the policies that we have established. Locking away our children in rooms is banished
If you exploit their innocence, we will seek you out. Because in this district, black lives do matter without a doubt
It pains my heart to know a child was in a cage, viewed as a spectacle, fury and rage
Behind glass like creatures in zoos they’re kept, while tears are shed many nights are wept
But change is coming, a new day dawns bright. For every child will shine and take their rightful light
The city of Denver will stand tall and proud, lifting every voice and breaking every shroud
No longer in shadows, no more silent cries, together we rise to reclaim the skies
The narrative of the old starts to wane, as unity, love, and hope remain
No longer shackled, no chains to bind, for every child deserves piece of mind
The pain and the hurt, they’ve been profound, but in the heart of the city a post is found
A rhythm of change, a beat of the new, every shade, every color, every hue
To the leaders of the old, blinded by fear, know that the dawn of a new era is here
For our children are strong, resilient, and wise, they’ll surmount every challenge and always will rise
So here in Denver, let the story be told, of a community strong, and a spirit bold
For black lives matter today and always, in our actions and words and all of our days
In this city of dreams where mountains touch skies, we pledge to ensure every learner thrives.