The Misinformation Spread
Estimated Read Time: 10 minutes
On March 30, Westword published a piece exposing statements DCSD Board of Education President Mike Peterson made at a Lincoln Club of Colorado luncheon on March 23. While the piece highlighted these statements of concern, we wanted to provide more context as to why Peterson’s statements should be alarming us all that an extremist, national agenda is influencing DCSD and setting the framework to dismantle public education.
This extremist agenda is sowing chaos and strife in school districts and communities across the country. Misinformation and gaslighting are common tactics that are being used. We wanted to take an opportunity to unpack the statements that Peterson made to put them in this greater context at play. The best we, as information and fact seekers, can do is continue to illuminate it when we see it. We need to expose extremism for what it is, and offer the fact-based reality.
Pushing Misinformation is Part of the Extremist Playbook
The falsehood of CRT being taught in schools is just the tip of the level and depth of misinformation being spread by extremists. Pretending that they can sweep in and save the American public from the boogeyman has become a regular strategy to find supporters and create panic and fear where no demon exists.
How Peterson’s Statements are Consistent with the Extremist, National Agenda
The Lincoln Club defines itself as Colorado’s oldest Republican organization whose mission is to promote the educational and social programs of the Republican Party and to support the election of Republican candidates. Peterson’s speech was titled “Taking Back Our Schools: The State of Education in Douglas County.”
Let’s discuss the title first, “Taking Back Our Schools: The State of Education in Douglas County.” The public education system has been under attack for decades. Over and over again we have seen attempts to privatize education, use public monies for private schools and chip away at the integrity of public education until it is no longer functioning. Here, in Douglas County, we fought hard against vouchers in the 2010s and eventually won, keeping a School Choice money laundering program out of the district. When a pro-public education, bipartisan majority school board was finally in place (2017) we saw stability follow. Academic performance improved, teacher retention stabilized and a much-needed and overdue MLO/Bond was passed. So, when Peterson says that he is taking back the schools, he is implying that they haven’t been successful and focused on students thus far, when the reality is the actions of the previous board DO reflect their focus on academics, teachers and student success.
The one and only legitimate issue that divided this district was masking. Let’s be honest, COVID was awful for everyone, and the constantly changing guidelines and protocols were overwhelming for everyone involved. But masks are no longer an issue and have zero relevance today. It was extremely short-sighted for voters to elect the Kids First candidates based on the mask issue.
Stepping back to Peterson’s speech; the event was closed to the media, and attendees were asked to identify themselves if they were with the media or campaigns and asked to leave. One attendee (who was in neither category) attended and recorded Peterson’s speech.
He claimed that students are being indoctrinated by teachers, who he claims, are bringing supplemental materials about sex into the classroom. He said it was “creeping into the district.”
Director Peterson’s statements were incredibly concerning as he is making unsubstantiated allegations that our DCSD teachers are being inappropriate with students. This dog whistle of child abuse is a political tactic is one we are seeing used nationwide, most recently in Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill (otherwise known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill).
Unfounded allegations of child abuse are made, geared toward blaming another political party for “grooming” children for sexual abuse. Peterson seems to be in alignment with recent statements made by Florida Governor Ron DiSantis who said that opponents of the Parental Rights Bill “support sexualizing kids in kindergarten.” This only reinforces the concern that we have for our community that a larger, national extremist agenda is at play.
He said that Erin Kane was hired for the Superintendent position over Danny Winsor because she would not tolerate activism.
“But back to the point here, she [Erin] is going to put academics first over having activism in the classroom. We've been stomping out those fires as a board, but that's not my job as a board member...
And Danny Winsor, the other person in the finals, is an honorable man. And a fair man, a very well-respected man. He would have been excellent for our district as well. My doubts were around his ability to fight the battle with activism in our schools.”
From Director Peterson’s statements, it is unclear what he means by “activism.” Is he calling out the right of our students to organize? In this school year alone, we have seen students protest wearing masks and protest the firing of Superintendent Corey Wise. Or is this a call out of our teachers protesting the passage of the Resolution to the DCSD Equity Policy and the treatment of Corey Wise?
What is clear, is that a call to quash activism is in direct conflict with our First Amendment Right of freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. It also villanizes the word “activism” when activists in the United States have overthrown the rule of the British monarchy, fought for the abolition of slavery, fought for inclusive voting rights, and a litany other causes to create liberty and justice for all.
In addition, it seems that Peterson’s statements are in direct conflict with the Resolution to DCSD Educational Equity policy, approved by Peterson and the other majority BoE members. For example, the Resolution specified, “School District staff members will thrive in supporting our students and families in an environment where they can freely express views and opinions that may be counter to others’ views and opinions.” Additionally, the Resolution proclaimed that every student should have “the ability to engage in respectful debate of issues.” This is another consistent thread from the extremist national agenda against public education of proclaiming to protect free speech, while actually limiting it.
Peterson also claimed that the teachers’ union had a grand plan with a three-pronged approach – (1) call the new board members “horrible people” and “crank up that narrative and make this as noisy as possible with their media allies.” (2) A recall, which he claimed was started before he and the other new directors were even sworn in. (3) He calls this the “two Cs – collective bargaining and curriculum.”
“You're gonna see the collective bargaining come in, that self-licking ice cream cone. Where the teacher’s union funnels money into candidates to get elected to the school board, then they negotiate with the candidates that they funded, for more union dues, and on and on it goes.
So, the first C is collective bargaining, the second one is curriculum.
That's where they come in. You get the revision of history, you get the social agendas and every minute where they spend time on these other activists items, is a minute your child was not in there learning the core of literacy, of writing, of math, of science of those skills that will enable them to be a constructive member of society, however they choose.”
Peterson’s attack on our teachers’ union is not new, and is also consistent with the national extremist movement. We unpacked this in more depth in a recent DougCo Collective blog post, The Latest Dog Whistle from School Reformers: Teachers’ Unions. It is clear that Peterson still does not understand, despite his claims that he supports teachers, that attacking the teachers’ union is an attack on our teachers.
While we have addressed the concerns with Director Peterson’s use of the word “activism” earlier, we want to name that this language he uses of “revision of history” is consistent with the national extremist agenda to pass legislation that limits an inclusive and accurate history. PEN America coined this legislation as “educational gag orders,” named as such as they are “designed to chill academic and educational discussions and impose government dictates on teaching and learning.”
On the topic of firing former Superintendent Corey Wise without cause, Peterson said he should have fired him sooner. “If I could rewind, do it all over again, I probably would have done a superintendent thing right away, instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt. But we did, we gave the superintendent the benefit of the doubt.”
Let’s be honest, this was the third strike for teachers (first was getting rid of masks overnight, without the ability to plan and foresee needs of students; second was making a resolution to the Equity Policy) and sent a clear message to them that they are not respected and their opinions and evaluation are not wanted. If the newly elected BoE directors are going to abuse their representative power by disrespecting a 26-year teaching veteran, then what will be next for teachers?
Anything can and will happen with a BoE that does not consider the views of the teachers and staff who stepped up during a global pandemic and worked their tails off when asked, without pushback and under extreme stress and pressure. They cannot call them heroes and then turn their backs on them when they speak up. That is hypocrisy at its finest.
Regarding the legal trouble he and his fellow board majority members are in over Colorado Open Meeting Laws, Peterson doubled down.
“What is being alleged is that myself and the other three members broke Colorado laws. Did we break open meeting laws? Yes, we did…in Hawaii, Ohio. Nevada, California, which is where the judge cited out of state law, which has similar provisions to Colorado.
Do I think we broke Colorado meeting laws? No, I do not. Would I go back from a political aspect of how that whole thing was weaponized back to narrative and noise, and do it differently in hindsight from a political aspect. Absolutely. I would have been smarter. We’re new board members.”
We believe that Director Peterson and the rest of the BoE may have been given some bad legal advice, as evidenced at the March 11 BoE meeting. When there is not a current judgment in the state to lean on, judges use the precedent set in other states to make their decisions. Interpretation of the law is their job. So, let’s be very clear here. Only arrogance leads you to appeal an injunction that asks you to follow the law. Secondly, if the BoE majority appeals and are again found to be guilty of violating the law, they will forever set a precedent in Colorado for the next lawsuit that comes by way of the court. Thirdly, as we also know, any appeal will not be covered under insurance, therefore, the money for the attorney fees will come from the DCSD general fund, money that could otherwise be available for students. It’s time to put egos aside.
Words Matter
DougCo Collective wants to see DSCD succeed. We want to see our children, teachers, and staff flourish. We want a strong, stable and healthy public education system in our community.
We hope that Peterson is able to reflect on how damaging his statements are, and how they are deepening the division of our school district and community. We hope that he uses this as an invitation into accountability for his words and creates repair from the harm created by his divisive and incendiary statements. And we hope that Peterson uses this as an opportunity to redirect his focus to the needs of our community rather than an extremist, national agenda. Extremism has no place in DCSD; Peterson and the entire BoE need to be more representative of our district’s values.