This week’s feature, “Wrong Answer,” tells the stories of five Denver teachers who’ve sued the school district for essentially getting rid of them even though they’ve never gotten a bad review. How? By following a procedure laid out in a provision in the state’s landmark 2010 teacher-effectiveness law — a…
In December, CU professor Patti Adler was thrust into controversy over a prostitution skit that’s long been part of a class entitled “Deviance in U.S. Society.” Adler backers blasted the university, which eventually backed down. But after being told she could teach the class pretty much as normal, Adler announced…
The story of Kamryn Renfro, a nine-year-old Grand Junction girl who was briefly banned from the Caprock Academy charter school because her bald head violated the school’s dress-code policy — she’d shaved it in solidarity with her best friend, who is battling cancer — made us think about some of…
Giving birth to a child is arguably the most intensely painful experience a human being can have. After nine months of more-or-less blissful pregnancy, childbirth is the dark side of reproduction — and it’s understandable that many women prefer to bypass the full experience through drugs or surgery, given the…
This morning the Colorado Children’s Campaign released its annual report, “Kids Count,” at the State Capitol. According to the report, more Colorado children were living in poverty in 2012 than during the worst of the Great Depression. And despite the economic recovery, “one in six Colorado children still lives in…
Last week, Fox News shared a piece suggesting that a jump in admissions at colleges across Colorado may be related to the passage of Amendment 64, which legalized retail pot sales. Of course, eighteen-year-old college freshmen couldn’t take advantage of this law anyhow, since it only pertains to adults ages…
The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a lower-court decision okaying Douglas County’s controversial school voucher plan, which allows parents to use taxpayer dollars to enroll their kids at religious schools. That’s great news for the ACLU of Colorado, which has been battling the Dougco vouchers…
Last month, an American Philosophical Association committee issued a report about the philosophy department at CU Boulder, and it wasn’t pretty. Among the claims: “The department has maintained an overall environment ‘with unacceptable sexual harassment, inappropriate sexualized unprofessional behavior, and divisive uncivil behavior.'” Now, six female faculty members, including Claudia…
A lot has changed at the Ricardo Flores Magon Academy, a local charter school whose stellar test scores belied the tense environment that characterized the school when we wrote about it in November 2011. In March 2012, the founder of the school — and the man who teachers and parents…
Vape pens used to smoke marijuana aren’t new: We wrote about a dispensary giving them away to chemotherapy patients back in 2012. But with the growing popularity of e-cigarettes, the concept has gone mainstream in a big way thanks to the way the devices mask much of the scent and…
We’re all familiar with how quickly small matters can become national controversies these days — and the twists, turns and craziness around a Fort Collins High School spirit week proposal for what was originally called “‘Merica Day” is a case in point. The school initially rejected the idea for a…
On January 29, the Colorado Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case to determine who will fill the District 4 seat on the Adams 12 school board. As we reported in an earlier blog post, the question before the high court is whether candidate Amy Speers won the…
Last month, CU professor Patti Adler was called on the carpet over a prostitution skit that’s long been part of a class entitled “Deviance in U.S. Society,” with Adler supporters blasting the university for what they saw as attacks on academic freedom and Adler personally. In the end, the administration…
Earlier this week, we told you about controversy over CU-Boulder professor Patti Adler, who implied to students that she was being forced out at the university over a prostitution skit she included in her class entitled “Deviance in U.S. Society.” Since that post, and in the face of social-media protests…
Auraria has long been known as a sort of safe haven for the homeless in Denver. It’s a great place to get out of the wind, grab a half-smoked cigarette or two and maybe, just maybe, snag a chance to use a bathroom and get a break from your harsh…
Patti Adler is a longtime professor at CU-Boulder. But whether she’ll continue at the school is unclear at this writing due to complaints over a prostitution skit included in her “Deviance in U.S. Society” class. Not since CU-Boulder’s long-running (and ultimately successful) effort to fire controversial professor Ward Churchill has…
Jade Masters-Ownbey, mom of the little Canon City girl who six-year-old Hunter Yelton was suspended for kissing a few days back, initially said she wouldn’t talk with the media. She thought the international publicity given to the story as a result of Hunter’s behavior being tagged sexual harassment was way…
No denying that Canon City six-year-old Hunter Yelton is a charmer. But charm didn’t get him out of trouble this week, and may have actually gotten him into it. That’s because he was suspended after kissing a classmate on the hand — an act the boy’s school branded sexual harassment…
The Colorado Supreme Court is poised to play a role in determining who sits on the Adams 12 school board. The state’s high court has decided to hear a case that seeks an answer to a complicated question: Can candidate Amy Speers, whose story we told last week, officially win…
What happens when an ineligible candidate wins an election with two-thirds of the vote? That’s the situation Amy Speers finds herself in. A candidate for the Adams 12 Five Star school board, Speers was declared ineligible a week before election day when district officials realized she didn’t live in the…
We’re guessing most parents of students at Pueblo South High School assumed that teacher Larisa Oringdulph committed a crime when sending a nude photo of herself to a student. Turns out they were wrong. And while Oringdulph has resigned her position, she’s technically able to get a job at another…
For the first time, the Colorado Department of Education has broken out marijuana from student expulsion figures related to drugs — and during the most recent school year, pot was by far the leading reason for pupils being expelled. This information is concerning to two experts with whom we communicated…
