Investigators are looking into threats reportedly made against the children of members of the board of education of Jefferson County, Colorado (JeffCo), where thousands of students have walked out of classes to protest what they have been told is an attempt to teach them patriotism and citizenship and discourage civil disobedience.
According to local FOX 31 Denver news, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department and the school district’s security division both confirm they are investigating threats made Wednesday against the child of board member John Newkirk, who said that while he accepts the current situation of teacher walkouts, student protests, and contentious board meetings as part of his job, he never expected his children or family members to be victimized.
“A couple of months after the election, some opponents of the new school board started to target the school where my kindergartner was going,” Newkirk said, describing the graffiti spray that was found painted on signs outside his daughter’s school with the statement, “Newkirk is a (expletive).”
“My daughter is old enough to read now, and when she sees her name on a sign with a pejorative underneath it, she doesn’t know if they’re talking about her daddy or the whole school hates her,” he said.
Newkirk said he does not believe anyone at his daughter’s school itself had anything to do with the graffiti, but added that at the same time, someone vandalized a family crest sticker on a family member’s car that had been parked in a JeffCo school parking lot.
“Someone went on school property and, using district materials, fashioned a meteor crashing toward the stick figure family with the implication the family would be wiped out,” he explained.
Fox 31 states that, according to a Lakewood police report, a JeffCo school district employee confessed to the vandalism and was put on paid administrative leave for two weeks.
“It’s one thing to throw rocks at me, I’m an elected official,” Newkirk said. “But when you target the family, that crosses a line.”
Newkirk added that while he felt it was in the best interest of his children to change schools, he believes his constituents will be best served if he stands his ground as a member of the school board.
“I will go into the board room and I will hold to my core principles,” he asserted. “If anything, it’s going to strengthen my resolve that this culture has to change.”
Investigators are also looking into a case involving another school board member’s children as well, says Fox 31.
As Breitbart News previously reported, Mike Antonucci, who monitors public education and teachers’ unions at Intercepts, said the student protests and teacher walkouts in JeffCo are very well planned and come after a conservative majority was elected to the board of education.
“Perhaps it’s all a coincidence, but at the end of July, 48 NEA UniServ directors from 18 states were sent to Jefferson County to train local officers and activists in conducting home visits with members,” Antonucci wrote. “Once the school year began, there was a flurry of union activity.”
Antonucci also cited that Colorado Education Association received a one-year NEA funding grant to hire an organizing specialist “to help bring educators together to fight back against the movement to privatize public education.” The specialist’s job is to coordinate campaigns in five Colorado local affiliates in three “metro area school districts.”
Students from at least six area schools have participated thus far in the protests that continued throughout the past week, with some stripping off their clothing and writing slogans on their bodies in support of their teachers and against what they were told about a school board proposal to review the new A.P. U.S. History framework that has been introduced by the College Board, headed by David Coleman, the “architect” of the Common Core standards. No vote was ever taken on the proposal.
Teachers also held a strike, which they called a “sickout,” that resulted in the shutdown of two schools.
The next school board meeting is scheduled for October 2, but no vote is planned on the APUSH proposal.
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