Pushback: Parent sues Denver school board and four of its board members for slander
The accused slanderers still serving on Denver’s Board of Education.
Click for details about each.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Kristen Fry, a parent in Denver, has now sued the four members of the Denver school board who teamed up with a political consultant they worked with to falsely accuse her of assaulting that political consultant at a public board meeting while also using a vicious racial slur against him.
Fry had been part of a group of parents and teachers that were desperately trying to get this board to change its policies in the schools that had were allowing violence to run rampant From Fry’s lawsuit [pdf]
In the period leading up to 2022-23 school year, the BOE [Board of Education] defendants pursued a number of significant changes to DPS [Denver Public Schools] policy that had severe consequences for the educational and safety environment in DPS schools.
Among other things, in an initiative spearheaded by Mr. Anderson, and supported by the other defendants, DPS removed public safety officers from district schools because of purported racial inequities in disciplinary enforcement. DPS further replaced clear behavioral and accountability rules with what are sometimes termed “restorative justice” principles that often have the effect of leaving students (especially low-income students) vulnerable to disruptive and even criminal behavior by their classmates. For example, under the new rules, schools were required to allow potentially violent students, including students facing criminal charges such as robbery and attempted murder, to attend in person, even where against the advice of law enforcement authorities.
These policies were doing nothing but bring chaos and violence to the schools, while seriously degrading the learning environment. The parents, teachers, and even students repeatedly attempted in private and in public to convince the board its policies were not working.
In every case, this effort was met with anger, disrespect, and retailation by the board. In one case the board immediately terminated a principal for expressing dissent about their policies to a television news reporter. In the case of Fry, these thugs not only repeated these false claims against her in many public forums, they teamed up to file criminal charges against her.
Because of the charges brought by them, the Denver public school system banned Fry from being a volunteer in the schools, and the court also banned her from attending all board meetings, essentially denying her the right to use her first amendment rights.
The problem was that their claims were utterly false and downright slanders, as quickly proven when surveillance footage of that board meeting clearly showed that Fry never assaulted anyone. Once this footage was seen, the district attorney immediately dropped all charges against Fry.
Her reputation however remains soiled by the false slanders and accusations, and because of this she has enlisted the non-profit legal firm Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) to defend her. Her lawsuit names the Denver Public School system, but it also names as defendants the four board members who defamed her — Auton’tai Anderson, Scott Esserman, Xochitl Gaytan, Michelle Quattlebaum — as well as two consultants, Hashim Coates and MiDian Shofner. Of these board members, only Anderson is no longer a board member. All the others continue in office, and apparently continue to refuse to recognize that they are not dictators, but servants of the parents and children in their schools.
The most shameful aspect of this story is how quickly so many people accepted these false charges on their face, without any skepticism. As noted in Fry’s complaint:
Defendants’ lies about Ms. Fry stoked potentially dangerous reactions from the broadcast viewership. Among other things, in the publicly-available comment section, viewers wrote, “who is Kristen Fry?” and “sounds like a racial hate crime occurred,” and “[b]ring your folding chair,” the latter in reference to a violent episode earlier that month in which a folding chair was used as a weapon in a race-related brawl in Alabama.
During this time period, the defamatory accusations against Ms. Fry were becoming known to wide swaths of the Denver community. Ms. Fry even received an unprompted message from a friend warning her that she “just got a text from a friend saying ur going around calling people the N word . . . Giving u a heads up that ur reputation is going in that direction.”
Americans have got to stop acting like sheep!
You would think that by now the public would recognize that accusations such as these are almost always proven false, that in almost every instance the accuser lies, using the accusation merely to stave off criticism or any opposition. That has now been the track record of these kinds of slanders now for more than two decades.
Fry must win her case, and she must do so by making these individuals pay. At the same time, Americans of all stripes have got to stop providing any aid or comfort to goons like this, who use racial tension to destroy others for their own gain.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The accused slanderers still serving on Denver’s Board of Education.
Click for details about each.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Kristen Fry, a parent in Denver, has now sued the four members of the Denver school board who teamed up with a political consultant they worked with to falsely accuse her of assaulting that political consultant at a public board meeting while also using a vicious racial slur against him.
Fry had been part of a group of parents and teachers that were desperately trying to get this board to change its policies in the schools that had were allowing violence to run rampant From Fry’s lawsuit [pdf]
In the period leading up to 2022-23 school year, the BOE [Board of Education] defendants pursued a number of significant changes to DPS [Denver Public Schools] policy that had severe consequences for the educational and safety environment in DPS schools.
Among other things, in an initiative spearheaded by Mr. Anderson, and supported by the other defendants, DPS removed public safety officers from district schools because of purported racial inequities in disciplinary enforcement. DPS further replaced clear behavioral and accountability rules with what are sometimes termed “restorative justice” principles that often have the effect of leaving students (especially low-income students) vulnerable to disruptive and even criminal behavior by their classmates. For example, under the new rules, schools were required to allow potentially violent students, including students facing criminal charges such as robbery and attempted murder, to attend in person, even where against the advice of law enforcement authorities.
These policies were doing nothing but bring chaos and violence to the schools, while seriously degrading the learning environment. The parents, teachers, and even students repeatedly attempted in private and in public to convince the board its policies were not working.
In every case, this effort was met with anger, disrespect, and retailation by the board. In one case the board immediately terminated a principal for expressing dissent about their policies to a television news reporter. In the case of Fry, these thugs not only repeated these false claims against her in many public forums, they teamed up to file criminal charges against her.
Because of the charges brought by them, the Denver public school system banned Fry from being a volunteer in the schools, and the court also banned her from attending all board meetings, essentially denying her the right to use her first amendment rights.
The problem was that their claims were utterly false and downright slanders, as quickly proven when surveillance footage of that board meeting clearly showed that Fry never assaulted anyone. Once this footage was seen, the district attorney immediately dropped all charges against Fry.
Her reputation however remains soiled by the false slanders and accusations, and because of this she has enlisted the non-profit legal firm Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) to defend her. Her lawsuit names the Denver Public School system, but it also names as defendants the four board members who defamed her — Auton’tai Anderson, Scott Esserman, Xochitl Gaytan, Michelle Quattlebaum — as well as two consultants, Hashim Coates and MiDian Shofner. Of these board members, only Anderson is no longer a board member. All the others continue in office, and apparently continue to refuse to recognize that they are not dictators, but servants of the parents and children in their schools.
The most shameful aspect of this story is how quickly so many people accepted these false charges on their face, without any skepticism. As noted in Fry’s complaint:
Defendants’ lies about Ms. Fry stoked potentially dangerous reactions from the broadcast viewership. Among other things, in the publicly-available comment section, viewers wrote, “who is Kristen Fry?” and “sounds like a racial hate crime occurred,” and “[b]ring your folding chair,” the latter in reference to a violent episode earlier that month in which a folding chair was used as a weapon in a race-related brawl in Alabama.
During this time period, the defamatory accusations against Ms. Fry were becoming known to wide swaths of the Denver community. Ms. Fry even received an unprompted message from a friend warning her that she “just got a text from a friend saying ur going around calling people the N word . . . Giving u a heads up that ur reputation is going in that direction.”
Americans have got to stop acting like sheep!
You would think that by now the public would recognize that accusations such as these are almost always proven false, that in almost every instance the accuser lies, using the accusation merely to stave off criticism or any opposition. That has now been the track record of these kinds of slanders now for more than two decades.
Fry must win her case, and she must do so by making these individuals pay. At the same time, Americans of all stripes have got to stop providing any aid or comfort to goons like this, who use racial tension to destroy others for their own gain.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Great blog piece as always! Yes, indeed, Americans have en masse become sheepified. We need blogs like ‘Behind the Black’ by the score.
But, I do have to wonder what that “retailation” was that the board members would enact? Did they send unwanted, shoddy goods from their preferred vendors to those they were trying to victimize? *wink, wink*
As an aside, my step-father’s surname is Zimmerman. Keep up doing the family name proud.
So there was a VIDEO that showed she did NOTHING? She was ARRESTED before the Police even LOOKED at the video? It’s amazing how DECENT people who do nothing but VOICE their request for SANE, SAFE, and HONEST Schools are absolutely abused by LEFTIST School Boards! The Right has forgotten that School Boards are IMPORTANT – until recently! Now they see just how destructive and demoralizing the LEFTIST Board Members really are! It’s encouraging to read about some areas that are fighting back HARD against the LEFT and putting them OUT of their positions of influence! I know the LEFT uses a lot of words to incite and control people – accusing someone on the Right of uttering the “n” word is a call for cancellation. Maybe it’s time to add “restorative justice” to the list of FORBIDDEN words! Justice is according to Our Laws – anything else is probably ILLEGAL!
People forget that government bodies/committees/commissions/boards (et al) work for You the member of the public, NOT for themselves or their political party. On a small board like this, members have to put their party affiliation aside and perform their duties for the good of the entire public, not just the party that voted for them.
BT: Jimmy T Sends.
“People forget that government bodies/committees/commissions/boards (et al) work for You the member of the public, NOT for themselves or their political party.”
Ideological theory.
Real world:
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/democrat—obama—biden-hypocracy-in-your-face
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/core-sigma3ioc-observations-reading
Tay Anderson has been a walking circus since being DPS Board Director, and he’s just out of high school. That’s literally true. (Please consult public information on his age, antics, and excesses.)
Disturbing to see the polity is so utterly debased that 1) they’d elect a 21 year old to that high position that 2) bad policy is made in public to celebration of a sizable crowd that 3) the antics against Miss Fry actually took place by elected officials and their tenders behind the curtains.
Where is the Hope in any of this? The Dems in Chicago tell us Hope is making a comeback. Where’s the “truth to power” journalism that might give us some hope?
Kudos to Bob and BehindTheBlack, but The Working Masses need to know this too and something is preventing that.