The media finally grew a pair and took Denver Public Schools to court to force the release of the recordings of five hours of school board discussions held behind closed doors the day after last month’s school shooting.
Those secret talks produced major policy changes, and that’s illegal.
The Colorado Sunshine Law requires state and local governments to discuss and take action in meetings that are open to the public.
Clearly, they discussed rescinding their earlier policy that kicked school resource officers off campus, because they had the new directive ready to go and passed it without public discussion or input after emerging from their hush-hush discussion.
Some parents want the officers’ protecting campuses beyond the end of this school year, while some don’t want any protection at all from resource officers.
Either way, parents and the public should have been afforded input and been part of the discussion that occurred in private for five hours.
“Under settled and binding law, the meeting was not an ‘executive session,’ but rather an unlawfully closed public meeting,” the lawsuit said. “The audio recording and/or minutes of that meeting are a public record and should be immediately released to Plaintiffs.”
The lawsuit was filed in Denver District Court Friday by The Denver Gazette, Colorado Politics, Chalkbeat, KDVR Fox 31, Denver Post, and KUSA 9News.
We urge the judge to release the recordings, and if necessary redact any sensitive information about students.
The public has a right to know how the school board reacted to the shooting and what led to their decision-making.
The school board also failed to inform the public about the particular topics it would be discussing as required by law, states the lawsuit.
From Chalkbeat:
The executive session notice made no mention that official safety policies would be discussed or that new safety policies would be proposed. Nor did the notice mention discussion of a potential executive order from Mayor Michael Hancock placing police in schools. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said several days after the closed meeting that the possibility of an executive order influenced the board decision.
To no one’s surprise, Anderson defended the board’s decision to hold yet another closed-door discussion at their April 20 meeting to talk about McAuliffe International School security, where coincidently works the same principal who has publicly criticized the board, plus plans to allow parents to help with school security.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant to enacting sound public policy, good governance, and holding elected officials accountable to voters.
The decision-making process for protecting children at school and keeping out those who would do violence is absolutely of public concern.
We urge the court to release the tapes.