Extremist Groups Infiltrate DCSD
Estimated Read Time: 12 minutes
On March 24, 2022, Colorado Newsline published a story on its website titled "Conspiracy theories, homophobia fuel backlash to academic standards update." This article details the avalanche of negative feedback launched at the Colorado State Board of Education after it rolled out its first draft of updated academic standards for social studies aimed at being more inclusive of minority groups, including the LBGTQ community. “Negative” is not a strong enough word, actually. Venomous, hateful invective are more accurate ways to describe it.
Of course, much of the feedback was related to the now-reliable favorite of the evils of Critical Race Theory (which, it must be said, is not being taught anywhere in any public K-12 school in Colorado). But even more forcefully vilified was the recommended inclusion of the experiences of LBGTQ people in the proposed standards. The ignorance and vitriol contained in some of this feedback is nothing short of astonishing. In fact, after reading this article as part of my research for this blog post, I found it unfortunate that it’s now part of my Google search history. Here’s a sample of what some of our fellow Coloradoans (some of whom may be our neighbors) had to say:
“I am positive that if it were not for the fact that we have a homosexual for a governor that this hateful and perverted social studies proposal would not have been written.”
“LGBTQ subjects should not be taught in any capacity or in (sic) any level in our public schools. It is not the job of a teacher to explain various sexual perversions.”
“The LGBTQ topics are totally inappropriate for school children. These topics were considered psychological issues just a few years ago and the science supports that. Doctors do not consider these to be healthy issues or lifestyles.”
The ignorance and the inaccuracies in these statements could constitute a blog post all on their own. I will just address one – “just a few years ago.” On Dec. 15, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association issued a resolution stating that homosexuality was not a mental illness or sickness. So, roughly a half century ago, the APA released the following:
“We will no longer insist on a label of sickness for individuals who insist that they are well and demonstrate no generalized impairment in social effectiveness.”
The statement continued to say the APA supports “civil rights legislation at local, state, and Federal levels that would insure homosexual citizens the same protections now guaranteed to others.”
I cannot speak for anyone else, but in my book, 48.5 years is a whole lot longer than “just a few years.” Given that a generation is commonly understood to be about 25 years, we can say that roughly two generations have passed since the APA’s resolution. Is that really “just a few years?” No, it’s not.
Familiar Faces…
Right in the middle of this hysteria and mass panic is Douglas County’s very own Joe Oltmann, founder of the right wing extremist group FEC United, which has been tagged as an anti-government group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. You might recall Oltmann’s recent skirmish with infamy when he voiced his full-throated support for Vladamir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, stating, “I’ll stand on the side of Russia right now, 100%, two times on Sunday,” on his podcast Conservative Daily.
Oltmann, of course, was also very vocal about his support for the Kids First candidates last fall. In October 2021, he posted a livestream, where he ranted about the “radical leftist” school boards in both Douglas County and Cherry Creek, and further stated that winning was only possible in Douglas County because of the noble and righteous efforts of Merlin Klotz (Douglas County Clerk and Recorder and fellow election conspiracy theorist) to keep Dominion Systems out of Douglas County. Listen to it here. Setting aside the numerous inaccuracies and considerable amount of disinformation and delusional allegations leveled in that clip, the one thing that’s quite clear is that Oltmann was and still is a fervent Kids First supporter. In addition, he and FEC United have well-known ties to the deep-pocketed donors who financed the Kids First campaign and essentially purchased their seats on the Board of Education.
While it’s unknown if Oltmann submitted feedback about the proposed social studies curriculum, he made his feelings about the inclusion of LBGTQ perspectives in it quite clear on March 15, 2022, when he said, “They’re [educators] grooming them to be gay. This is a real thing – they are grooming your children so they can molest and abuse them.”
This pretty conclusively discounts the claims of another FEC United member (who is also a teacher in DCSD) who said “FEC United in no way discriminates against the LBGTQ community. Oltmann has said multiple times that he is not about an organization that discriminates against the LBGTQ community.” The exact calculus used to parse Oltmann’s comments to make them align with what we’re told is FEC United’s official stance on the LBGTQ community was unknown at the time of this writing.
Also adding his objections to the cacophony of criticisms about the proposed social studies curriculum is another well-known Douglas County resident, Kids First supporter and DCSD parent Will Johnson, Chapter Leader of FAIR, (acronym for the disingenuously-named Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism). FAIR’s Facebook page was originally named “Wokebusters of Douglas County,” so you may draw your own conclusions about how prominently ideas like standing against intolerance and racism truly factor into this organization’s mission.
Johnson, who is a frequent commenter at DCSD board meetings, was involved in writing the new board majority’s resolution to change the DCSD Equity Policy as part of the Douglas County chapter of FAIR (DCSD BoE meeting January 11, 2022; 4:53). The Equity Policy was developed over the course of several years, with significant community involvement, and under the guidance of highly respected Highlands Ranch High School Principal Dr. Christopher Page. (Worth noting is that progress reports on the development of the Equity Policy were provided to the DAC on a regular basis, during BoE Director Christy Williams’ tenure, where she had ample opportunity to voice any concerns about it, and there is no indication that she ever did.)
Veteran BoE Director Susan Meek has been asking since June 2021 to be included in FAIR meetings so she could better understand the group and the needs of their members as they pertain to DCSD and was ignored. But FAIR is well known to the Kids First majority, as Board President Mike Peterson has, on the record, affectionately referred to this organization as “our fine folks at FAIR,” and further stated that the group has, “a very balanced and even mind on this.”
On January 16, 2022, Complete Colorado (a publication issued by the Independence Institute) published an editorial penned by Johnson titled “Proposed social studies standards wrong for Colorado”. Below is a partial list of the things he is fretting about.
“History curriculum should certainly include America’s flaws but clarify that sins such as slavery were common throughout world history.” So, other people were doing it too, so that makes it somehow more acceptable that it happened in the U.S.? Don’t we all strive to teach our kids that just because other people are doing something that it doesn’t automatically make it OK?
The new standards include teaching different perspectives about the first Thanksgiving in first grade. Why is this bad? It’s common knowledge that the story we’ve all heard for years – that the Pilgrims endured illness, starvation, and a hard winter and then shared a shiny, happy meal celebrating a successful harvest with their wise and gracious new neighbors, after which everyone lived happily ever after – is fraught with historical inaccuracies and omissions. Why is it such an affront to Johnson, and by extension, FAIR, to talk about the more complete story? It’s true that the full story is not as sanitized and pleasant as the glossed over version that has become the accepted narrative, but don’t we want our kids to learn how to ask questions, dig deeper, and not accept everything at face value?
He laments that, “the proposed standards coach students to focus on “identity group” differences – the assumptions that traits like skin color and sexuality determine one’s identity perspective, and status as “privileged” or “marginalized.” So, acknowledging that the experiences and perspectives of different groups of people are not all the same is somehow bad? Yes, Mr. Johnson, we should absolutely talk about the things that unite us, but to pretend that different perspectives and experiences based on all kinds of things, not just skin color and sexuality, don’t exist or aren’t relevant is myopic and naïve, and does nothing to help our kids learn to be critical thinkers.
And Some New Faces Too…
Also jumping into the right-wing extremist mix of Douglas County politics is another organization, perhaps less well known – The Independence Institute. This group identifies itself as a “Libertarian think tank.”
Pam Benigno is the education policy director for the Independence Institute. She inserted herself, and the Independence Institute, into the DCSD political morass when she sent the new social studies standards to an FEC United member, and has stated her belief that they will force certain “lifestyles” on children, while out of the other side of her mouth, she asserts that she and her colleagues at the Independence Institute feel that adults can make their own choices and live however they choose to.
A deeper look at Benigno’s political contributions, publicly available to anyone who wants to see them on TRACER, reveals some interesting information.
A donation to the Coalition for Children, a pro-life organization supporting Proposition 115 on the 2020 Colorado state ballot, which sought to prohibit abortion after 22 weeks. It should be noted that the official Libertarian Party Platform states that, “Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on all sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration.”
Note that this is not a statement about the issue of abortion, it’s about the discrepency between claiming to be a Libertarian when actions support otherwise.
Numerous donations to GOP county commissioner campaigns and county Republican parties, but no contributions to any Libertarian party groups or candidates.
Contribution to the “Heidi [Ganahl] for CU Regent” committee, which is notable because Heidi Ganahl is a Republican candidate for Colorado governor, and recently introduced herself as such on the “Parents Advocating for DCSD Kids” Facebook page, which over time has become the social media destination of choice for Kids First supporters. It is a private group, notorious for expelling members who voice any opposing viewpoints. A member of the private group had to send Ganahl an invitation to join the group in order for her to introduce herself as a gubernatorial candidate.
Numerous donations to former Reformer candidates. To be fair to Benigno, the Reformer agenda of “parent choice” and vouchers do align with the Libertarian Party platform, but her donations to these candidates make it clear who she supports on the current DCSD BoE.
One donation to a Republican candidate in an election where she did not donate to the Libertarian candidate in the same race.
One donation to the “Democrats for Education Reform” small donor committee, notable because the Colorado Democrat Party asked this group to remove ‘Democrat’ from its name.
And in the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that Benigno did donate to a Democratic candidate in 2016.
A Troublesome Trio
On December 16, 2021, Benigno, acting in her capacity as the education policy director for the Independence Institute, held a Zoom meeting in which she provided guidance and outlined her strategies for submitting feedback on the proposed social studies curriculum to the Colorado Department of Education. In attendance at that meeting were Johnson, Douglas County Chapter Leader of FAIR, and an FEC United member/DCSD teacher. Here’s a screenshot of that meeting, showing Benigno, along with Johnson (upper right), and a member of FEC United/DCSD teacher (bottom).
The video of the meeting has been removed from FEC United’s social media pages, but the connections and associations between these three groups are clear and incontrovertible.
The Independence Institute and FAIR have voluntarily joined forces with FEC United (the radical, right-wing extremist group led by Oltmann who embraces election conspiracy theories – to the point of being a speaker in Washington, D.C. on January 6th – and accuses educators of grooming children to be gay so they can molest and abuse them). FAIR has well-documented connections to the Kids First BoE majority, and, thanks to this meeting, so does the Independence Institute. And now they both have a documented connection to FEC United, which has its own well-established link to the Kids First BoE majority. And let’s not forget that the Independence Institute runs the “Complete Colorado blog,” where Johnson published his list of grievances about the proposed social studies curriculum.
That the Independence Institute is so willing to associate itself with organizations whose actions and beliefs are quite contradictory to the core beliefs espoused by the Libertarian Party makes it pretty evident that this is yet another right-wing extremist group trying to involve itself in our school district and sow even more seeds of discourse and divisiveness in our community while trying to make itself appear to be something that it’s not. Don’t fall for it. Extremism has no place in DCSD.