Students walk out of class after Latino teacher placed on administrative leave

Students at Denver’s North High School rallied in support of a beloved teacher, who was placed on administrative leave last week, by walking out of their classrooms Thursday morning and then speaking out during the district’s school board meeting in the evening.

Denver Public Schools placed Tim Hernández, one of the few Latino teachers at the school and a resident of the Northside community, on leave last week after he joined students in an earlier protest held after North High didn’t renew his contract.

The walkout on Thursday was the second time in two weeks that students have left their classrooms to protest the school’s failure to keep Hernández on staff.

“They’re taking away our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) teachers and trying to silence us,” said Hope Navarro-alvarez, 16, a student of Hernández’s who was at the protest. “This is just going to make us louder. We won’t stop the fight until we get what we want. We want Mr. Hernandez back at North.”

Navarro-alvarez helped organize the march, saying that Hernández created a safe space for Latino students and the administration is taking it away. The school and district aren’t retaining BIPOC teachers, she said.

Students, parents and teachers also attended the district’s school board meeting Thursday. Emely Contreras, a teacher at North High, spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting, saying the district should listen to the students using their voices advocating for Hernández to be rehired.

“For years BIPOC teachers have been pushed out,” she said.

Hernández was not allowed to attend the public meeting because he is not allowed on school property while on administrative leave, said director Michelle Quattlebaum.

“This is hard. I want to call that out,” Quattlebaum told students before the school board meeting. “Our goal is to find some kind of resolution.”

Hernández said he was escorted from the district’s Emily Griffith campus downtown, where the meeting was held, before it began.

Tay Anderson, vice president of the school board, said the decision to remove Hernández did not come from the Board of Education. The board allowed Hernández to come into the building’s lobby to give his public comments remotely about two hours into the meeting.

“This is governmental oppression,” Hernández said during public comments.

“What is happening to our teachers of color is absolute oppression.”

DPS also limited the number of people allowed to attend the public meeting to 25 people, excluding the board directors. The district said the limit is because of “the configuration of the room” the board has been meeting in since the pandemic began. There are 33 chairs in the room for the public, said district spokesman Scott Pribble.

But Anderson said he was surprised by the limitations put in place.

“I am baffled that in-person participation has been limited at this month’s Board of Education meeting,” he said. “Since being elected in 2019, I have never seen any such restrictions imposed on in-person participation. I am quite shocked and disappointed that such restrictions have been enacted.”

Earlier in the day, roughly 30 teenagers walked from North High to the Emily Griffith campus downtown and police were present.

The students carried signs that read “Mr. Hernandez is North” and “No more classroom gentrification.” Before they arrived district security placed barricades around the entrance of the building and several armed guards were standing outside.

Denver Public Schools “respect (students) right and their freedom to protest and express themselves in a peaceful manner,” Pribble said.

A group of the students protesting met with district administrators and Anderson during the morning walkout, said Will Jones, a district spokesman.

Student Veneno QuezadaMontoya said he feels at home when he walks into Hernandez’s classroom.

“Mr. Hernandez is the reason I go to school every day,” The 15year-old said. “They are taking away the only community I know. He’s the one educator who looks like us and can relate to us.”

The more recent protest comes after students previously walked out after Hernández was told his teaching contract would not be renewed despite support from the English department and multiple community events the educator put on for his student.

The educator was placed on administrative leave on May 13 because he left his classroom duties to march with his students.

Hernández was hired at North High, a predominately Latino school, as a traditional teacher in 2021, but the following year was told the school did not have enough money to retain him in the role.

He was then hired for an associate teaching position, which paid less and came with a oneyear contract.

Hernández has said he applied for an open teaching position for next year, but school administrators told him he did not interview well enough for his contract to be renewed.

He has said the decision was retaliatory based on clashes with the school’s principal about diversity and equity issues. Hernández has also spoken publicly about the burnout educators are facing since returning to the classroom during the pandemic.

“Denver Public Schools has followed all of the hiring procedures that are in place to ensure their hiring process is fair and equitable,” Pribble said. “We stand by the personnel committee’s work, to ensure that all candidates had an equal opportunity and then hired the candidates they believed were most qualified for the open positions at North High School.”