School sued over student suspensions after protest
Parents of students attending a Commerce City charter school are suing the institution over allegations that its chief executive officer suspended more than 100 students last year after a peaceful campus protest, then barred two parents from school grounds after they reported on the incident in their Spanishlanguage newspaper.
Four parents and a former student filed the class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Denver on Tuesday, further alleging that students at Victory Preparatory Academy who used Facebook or spoke with the press to criticize the school’s response to the protest were punished by additional suspensions or asked to withdraw from the school entirely.
The lawsuit alleges “serial violations” by school administrators of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
“It’s an abuse of power,” said Iris Halpern, an attorney representing the impacted students and parents. “It’s extremely authoritarian. … Not only does it have serious implications for the students’ educational attainment, future earnings, their stability, their friendships, but what kind of message is that sending to students? They’re at a stage in their lives when they’re learning to be civic participants, and they’re learning about their rights and how to engage in society and communi-
ty, and the message they get is you will have negative ramifications for that.”
Messages seeking comment from Victory Preparatory Academy CEO Ronald Jajdelski were not returned Tuesday.
In September 2017, students at the academy — a public K-12 charter school in Adams County School District 14 — drafted a letter to school administrators, asking them to consider incorporating school spirit days, reconsider how disciplinary actions are handled and improve the culture of the school.
“VPA is proud of our academic history, yet we suffer by not having a true ‘high school experience,’ ” the students wrote. “We understand that not every demand can be met and so we are willing to work with the administration to better the school and make the VPA experience memorable to every student.”
According to the VPA website, the school’s students are more than 90 percent Hispanic or Latino and more than half are English language learners.
During a school assembly Sept. 28, 2017, the students stood to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but, when it came time to recite the school’s own pledge — “I … accept the VPA challenge to be a noble knight, and I pledge to do my best for myself, my family, my school and my community” — many of them refused to stand as a form of silent protest, according to the lawsuit.
Students initially were dismissed and sent back to class, but administrators called them back to the auditorium, and Jajdelski started asking them about the protest. At that point, according to the lawsuit, the students presented Jajdelski with their letter.
Jajdelski’s response was to tell the students and administrators to alert parents that all 120 of the academy’s high school students were being sent home that day and needed to be picked up, according to the lawsuit.
Mark Silverstein, legal director with the Colorado branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Supreme Court ruled long ago that students don’t leave their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.
“As long as students are not causing a material and substantial disruption of the educational process, they can display their views while they’re in class and school,” Silverstein said. “Certainly, students also cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, whether it’s to the United States or a pledge of allegiance to the school.”
“False narrative with students”
When Mary and Joel Flores received a call to come pick up their son from Victory Preparatory Academy, they wanted to know why he was being sent home.
When they arrived, they were told by officers from the Commerce City Police Department who had been called to the scene that if they didn’t take their son home and leave the school grounds, Jajdelski would press charges and everyone would be arrested, according to video of the incident that Mary Flores filmed on her phone and provided to The Denver Post.
The couple reported on the situation in the Spanishlanguage newspaper they own, La Prensa de Colorado.
On Oct. 6, 2017, the school sent Mary and Joel Flores a letter saying that because of their reporting, they were banned from school property pending a “review” by corporate legal counsel, law enforcement and the school’s Board of Directors. In the letter, the school alleged the couple “chose to detain, film and photograph” students without permission from their parents or the school.
“You also intentionally chose to create a false narrative with students, the public and the media regarding VPA student activities and school administration decisions,” school administrators said in the unsigned letter. “Failure to comply with this directive will result in law enforcement intervention.”
The letter was written to indicate it was copied to the Commerce City Police Department, but police spokesman Rob McCoy said the department’s officers didn’t enforce any action regarding the incident.
“It was a violation of school rules,” McCoy said. “We wouldn’t have gotten involved in anything criminally. We weren’t involved in anything like that.”
The school’s board members, named as defendants in the lawsuit, voted to approve VPA barring Mary and Joel Flores. According to the VPA website, board president Jeff Smith is a former lieutenant with the Commerce City Police Department.
“We’re missing out”
Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, noted that it would be “very concerning” if a public charter school barred parents from school grounds for reporting on a school controversy as journalists.
“If school administrators thought the story was unfair or it needed to be corrected, they could have just said so,” Roberts said. “But punishing those parents for informing their community would be unacceptable.”
After the protest, some students posted on social media criticizing the administration’s handling of the situation. The lawsuit alleges that a couple students who spoke out against VPA and Jajdelski were later told to leave the school permanently.
VPA’s handbook includes a provision for parents that reads: “I further understand and consent to my parental responsibilities as outlined in this handbook; including the agreements to immediately activate the signed consent to voluntarily withdraw my student(s) if I or any family member displays inappropriate conduct directed at the school or school personnel on or off school property.”
The lawsuit notes that the handbook, which covers a school where 90 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, costs $5 and is not translated into Spanish. The lawsuit said the students whose parents were told to withdraw their children did not speak English.
Mary and Joel Flores remain prohibited from school grounds, they said, and have since missed out on watching their son play soccer and basketball, attending parent-teacher conferences and dropping off their son on campus. They fear they will be barred from watching their son graduate in the spring.
“He’s our only son together, and we’re missing out on the last years of his high school,” Joel Flores said.