On Saturday, a rally that had been organized by Jeffco Students for Change in hopes of firing up further student opposition to the conservative-led Jefferson County (JeffCo), Colorado board of education, was poorly-attended and mostly by adults who attempted to turn it into a Democrat organizing event.
In a statement to Breitbart News, Laura Boggs, the former lone Republican member of the JeffCo board of education who is now running for the Colorado state board of education, said “Jeffco Students for Change rented an entire area of Clement Park for the rally, and no one was allowed to be at the rally without permission of the group.”
“So when one arrived, one actually saw the Jeffco Democrats with a table set up passing out their signs,” Boggs wrote in an email statement.
Similarly, Jen Raiffie, who has covered the events in Jefferson County for the past several weeks, tweeted that Community Outreach – funded by Planned Parenthood – was also at the student rally conducting a voter registration drive.
Community Outreach Group – funded by Planned Parenthood, was at the student rally conducting a voter registration drive #JeffCoTruth
— Jennifer Raiffie (@jraiffie) October 11, 2014
A group funded by planned parenthood is on site doing a voter registration drive #JeffcoTruth
— Jennifer Raiffie (@jraiffie) October 11, 2014
According to the Denver Post, 500 students and adults were expected at the rally, but only about 100 actually attended, including few students.
As Breitbart News has reported, mounting evidence shows that the students have been exploited by the local and state teachers’ unions, with some assistance from the National Education Association, for their own purposes.
Several students at the rally gave speeches, while mostly adults cheered them on as they held up posters with slogans such as, “Don’t White Wash History,” reports the Post.
The speeches and posters referred to the students’ claim that they are protesting a JeffCo school board’s proposal to review the new Advanced Placement U.S. History (APUSH) framework, developed by the College Board under the direction of president David Coleman, the “architect” of the Common Core standards. The students say that a review of the APUSH framework, a duty of the school board according to the Colorado Constitution and the board’s own policies, constitutes “censorship” of the APUSH curriculum.
“Censorship has no place in education,” said Ashlyn Maher, 16, a senior at Chatfield High School. “The board’s decisions are our business.”
However, as events surrounding the unrest have unraveled, a teachers’ union representative has been discovered to have organized teacher “sickouts” leading to school closures, and students revealed their teachers have told them about their anger over the board’s decision to move to a merit pay system in which teachers whose performance ratings are less than satisfactory do not receive raises. Additionally, the Jeffco Students for Change Facebook page contains a lengthy description of the teachers’ salary system and the changes to salary structure made by the JeffCo board of education.
Dusten Strock, a senior at Bear Creek High School, said members of Jeffco Students for Change have put on hold a possible recall campaign of the school board as they wait to determine the impact of the board’s decision to approve an amended proposal to form a curriculum review committee that will include students and members of the community.
“The school board can completely ignore their recommendation and pursue their own agenda,” Strock said. “This is a public coming out.”
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