Ex-principal alleges race-based firing
A former principal at Wyatt Academy is suing Denver Public Schools, alleging she was improperly fired because of her race after community activists objected to how she handled a fight at the charter school last year.
Kristina Riley, who is white, was fired in July 2018, after about one year as principal of Wyatt Academy’s elementary grades. Her contract had been renewed for another year that April, a few weeks before the student fight.
Riley said in the lawsuit that an investigation into the fight found she hadn’t done anything wrong, and she noted that she had raised Wyatt Academy’s ranking on Denver’s school performance framework to “accredited on watch,” the third of five possible ranking levels in DPS, up from “accredited on priority watch” the year before.
It’s not clear if that represents a real improvement, though, because the middle and elementary school grades had been combined in 2017.
When they were separated in 2018, the middle school grades earned the lowest level, which suggests combining them might have yielded the second-lowest result the year before.
“Despite stellar job performance, Plaintiff was terminated as K-5 principal,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiff’s termination was the result of unlawful racial discrimination.”
Riley said she was suspended only after Hasira Ashemu, a community activist with Our Voice, Our Schools, shared video of the fight on social media. She said Ashemu referred to her and other white administrators as “colonizers,” and that Wyatt board member Rodney Bates said white administrators shouldn’t work in “urban schools.”
The district declined to comment on pending litigation.
Eric Hall, who is representing Wyatt Academy and Bates, said the board member made no such statement.
“That is false,” Hall said. Ashemu said the community’s objection wasn’t to Riley’s race, but because she didn’t report the incident until the video became public and encouraged the parents to file complaints against each other’s children.
“There is a lack of empathy and understanding that is systemic inside Denver Public Schools, that is endemic among white teachers, staff, administrators,” hesaid.
Located in Denver’s Cole neighborhood, Wyatt Academy serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade, but has struggled with declining enrollment in recent years.
It had 260 students during Riley’s tenure, but only 189 in the most recent year.
More than 90% of the students are Hispanic or black, and 96% qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.
The fight involved three female students in fifth grade who tussled on the playground after an argument. A cellphone video of the fight showed other students trying to separate the three, who initially yelled profanities at each other. In the video, the school’s restorative justice coordinator, Justin Mallen, can be heard saying, “Is anyone, like, going to hit anyone or is this just going to be a…”
Mallen then could be seen standing by while one student pushed another away. He then asked one of the students who was yelling profanities at another, “Where do you get this anger from?” He intervened physically after two students grabbed the one who had been yelling.
After the students began fighting, Mallen held one of the students on the ground to restrain her, and called security. Riley said she wasn’t aware of the fight until after Mallen called security. Mallen received a warning letter in his file for how he handled the fight and later left the school.
Riley suspended the students for three days, which she said was allowed under the district and school discipline codes, but later reduced the suspensions after talking to the mother of one of the students. Denver police ticketed the three students, but the tickets were dismissed after the students decided not to press charges against one another.