DENVER — A Denver Public Schools (DPS) investigation did not find evidence of racial discrimination in the use of seclusion rooms at McAuliffe International School.
An attorney for the school's recently fired principal, Kurt Dennis, shared the results of an investigation into monitored seclusion rooms with 9NEWS. A DPS spokesman confirmed the document's authenticity. According to the investigation, there is evidence that the seclusion rooms for students violated DPS policy but did not back up board members' public claims that students were treated differently based on their race.
For weeks, school board members have publicly accused Dennis of racism, an assertion first made after Dennis was terminated by DPS when he spoke out about security concerns.
Dennis spoke to 9NEWS in March about DPS employees being forced to do weapons pat-downs without proper training and students charged with attempted murder being put back in class. The district decided to fire Dennis in July. His termination was formalized with a school board vote last week.
As the board faced public pressure over Dennis' firing, they turned to new allegations that McAuliffe used a seclusion room for out-of-control students in a way that didn't meet DPS standards.
Denver Public Schools' Human Resources interviewed three students and 24 witnesses for the district investigation. They also looked at emails, meeting notes and Dennis' media interviews.
While the investigation found that Dennis directed school staff to put students in two seclusion rooms without proper supervision, it also found insufficient evidence that Dennis "treated the student complainants or impacted party differently based on their race, color or national origin as it relates to placement in rooms 115 and 121E for the purposes of seclusion."
Tuesday, Board Vice President Auon'tai Anderson doubled down on his assertion of racism, saying McAuliffe's seclusion room was "problematic and echoes a dark past our country pledged to never revisit." Anderson's focus on Dennis extends to the fired whistleblower's new employer.
Anderson is calling for another investigation of Dennis by the NAACP because, Anderson says, Dennis has now been hired by another school district.
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