Speaker 1: She's always fighting for Colorado kids and kids all over
Speaker 1: the country. She was just a mom, just a mom
Speaker 1: hanging out when she found out that her daughter was
Speaker 1: being asked to join a club and then being told
Speaker 1: she was trands, and on and on, And we're going
Speaker 1: to get to that in a second. With Aaron Lee
Speaker 1: with Protect Kids Colorado. Aaron, good to see again.
Speaker 2: First of all, hey me, any, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So we have so much to talk about. We started
Speaker 1: out on Monday communicating you were to conference. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: we have to talk about what's in the DPS contract. Well,
Speaker 1: since then, the DPS contract has been ratified by the teachers.
Speaker 1: But what was so egregious about what was in that
Speaker 1: contract that got the ire of not just Protect Kids Colorado,
Speaker 1: but other parental organizations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I through Defending Education, we followed a formal
Speaker 3: letter asking them to remove all of the mandated diversity,
Speaker 3: equity and inclusion. So, if you were to do a
Speaker 3: word search on this bargaining agreement, the number one you used.
Speaker 2: Word as equity.
Speaker 3: It is throughout the entire thing mandatory training for equity,
Speaker 3: mandatory hiring standards which are very clearly biased and discriminatory
Speaker 3: mandating that you must hire a certain amount of people
Speaker 3: of color, really just forcing DEI.
Speaker 2: Into the classroom.
Speaker 3: And this is a school district where less than thirty
Speaker 3: percent of the kids can read and do mathic grade level.
Speaker 3: Yet they're focusing all of their attention and money. Really,
Speaker 3: our taxpayer dollars are going towards DEI rather than learning.
Speaker 1: In the contract, how much was about hiring teachers that
Speaker 1: have a proven track record of success, like really excellent teachers,
Speaker 1: or or accountability for teachers that may not be performing
Speaker 1: at the highest level.
Speaker 2: How much of that is in there as I read it? Nothing?
Speaker 3: And as we're seeing school districts like DPS taking away
Speaker 3: merit based ranking for students, they're also not worried about
Speaker 3: merit and they're hiring practices just equity and DEI.
Speaker 1: One of the most frustrating thoughts that is so pervasive
Speaker 1: among those who are just completely wedded to DEI is
Speaker 1: that if you just get a teacher in front of
Speaker 1: a student that looks like them, right flying that brown
Speaker 1: students can only learn from brown teachers. Black students can
Speaker 1: only learn from black teachers. Now, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: I would love to have role models of every stripe
Speaker 1: in every school. You know, upstanding people from all walks
Speaker 1: of life. But the notion that a black or brown
Speaker 1: kid can't learn from a great white teacher is just stupid.
Speaker 1: It's just dumb, and it's insulting and it's racist, frankly,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like they just codified that all into
Speaker 1: their contract.
Speaker 2: They did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we specifically asked them to take out Article thirty one,
Speaker 3: which was focused on equity hiring and training. They have
Speaker 3: mandatory DEI training, mandatory DEI hiring requirements, and we asked
Speaker 3: them to remove that.
Speaker 2: They did not.
Speaker 3: They went and ratified this agreement in with that still intact.
Speaker 3: One thing they did do was replace references to race
Speaker 3: and color with the term marginalized groups instead.
Speaker 2: So different.
Speaker 3: It's semantics gate, you know, a game of semantics. But
Speaker 3: the end result is the same.
Speaker 1: And this is not all the Denver Public Schools has
Speaker 1: been up to. They have now found themselves in the
Speaker 1: cross pairs of the Trump administration. You would think for
Speaker 1: everything we just talked about the fact that the teachers
Speaker 1: union contract is riddled with the word equity more than
Speaker 1: any other word in the contract. But no, the Trump
Speaker 1: administration is now paying closer attention because of bathrooms.
Speaker 2: Tell me what is going on there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, one thing I should have mentioned is that, yes,
Speaker 3: it's horrible that DEI is littered throughout, but they're breaking law.
Speaker 2: It's unconstitutional for them to force DEI the way that
Speaker 2: they are.
Speaker 3: So DPS early on in the Trump administration, back in January,
Speaker 3: actually back in winter break, they refurbished their female bathroom
Speaker 3: at East High School into an all gender bathroom, but
Speaker 3: left the male bathroom intact. So they eliminated the only
Speaker 3: single sex space for females and left the male bathroom.
Speaker 3: So males can use any bathroom, females can only use
Speaker 3: one that'll also allows males in. And so the Trump
Speaker 3: administration sent them a very strongly worded letter and opened
Speaker 3: a Title nine investigation on Denver Public schools. And now
Speaker 3: yesterday they have the findings of their investigation and they
Speaker 3: are in no uncertain terms demanding that DPS change these
Speaker 3: policies that allow males to use female single sex spaces
Speaker 3: or else.
Speaker 1: So what I find remarkable, Aaron, is where are the
Speaker 1: parents here? This is I you know, I realized that
Speaker 1: a lot of parents, especially single parents, they're working, they're
Speaker 1: doing all of these things. But dang, make a phone call, like,
Speaker 1: pick up the phone.
Speaker 2: And say it's not okay.
Speaker 1: This should not be okay that girls now don't have
Speaker 1: an option to pee at school if they're uncomfortable being
Speaker 1: in a bathroom.
Speaker 2: With a boy. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: And please, for that person who's about to text me,
Speaker 1: why is he 'tcomfortable the way that the back.
Speaker 2: I don't care why she's uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: She deserves to have a space where she can go
Speaker 1: urinate without feeling like she is under attack, and like
Speaker 1: it or not, that's just the way things are.
Speaker 2: Well, this is just so stupid.
Speaker 1: So what is Has the school district responded to your
Speaker 1: knowledge that?
Speaker 2: No, it seems like they're doubling down. It's my understanding.
Speaker 3: They actually added another all gender bathroom instead of backtracking
Speaker 3: on eliminating the female spaces. And it's important to point
Speaker 3: out that, you know, I believe transgenderism facilitates misogyny.
Speaker 2: They didn't eliminate the male bathroom.
Speaker 3: They eliminated the female single sex space. And to your point,
Speaker 3: where are the dads like parents in general? Yes, but
Speaker 3: why are these board meetings not packed out with angry
Speaker 3: fathers wanting to protect their daughters. As we saw in
Speaker 3: Loudon County, Virginia, the whole state election was shifted by
Speaker 3: girls being raped in their bathroom by trans identified males.
Speaker 3: So there clearly are real serious ramifications of allowing males
Speaker 3: into these female spaces. We're not asking for a whole lot,
Speaker 3: and it's not discriminatory to say that Title nine should
Speaker 3: be upheld.
Speaker 1: Aaron Lee is my guest with Protect Kids Colorado. Now, Aaron,
Speaker 1: I want to Aaron was just a mom whose daughter
Speaker 1: found herself being invited to what was supposed to be
Speaker 1: an art club meeting turned out to be a gender
Speaker 1: identity situation and created havoc for her daughter, and Aaron
Speaker 1: found herself thrust into the spotlight a little bit. But boy,
Speaker 1: I'm going to say, you have really strapped on the
Speaker 1: battle armer rhetorically speaking, and I am just amazed at
Speaker 1: how you continue to just engage and engage and engage.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the fact that Aaron Lee is now
Speaker 1: going to have a case heard at the Supreme Court.
Speaker 3: Hopefully we have filed our certain petition to the Supreme
Speaker 3: Court for them to take up the case. There are
Speaker 3: four secret school transitions that have been or will be filed,
Speaker 3: and so I hope that ours is the one that's heard,
Speaker 3: or at least there's a consolidation and we're considered. But
Speaker 3: I think this issue will be decided at the Supreme Court,
Speaker 3: probably in the spring session. They'll decide and fall whether
Speaker 3: or not to hear them. But they've really taken a
Speaker 3: liking to the transgender issue and recognize there such a
Speaker 3: great area around parents'.
Speaker 2: Rights, and the basis of my lawsuit is.
Speaker 3: Really common sense to do parents have the right to
Speaker 3: direct the care, custody and control of their children?
Speaker 1: Ye?
Speaker 3: Or does that right belong to the state And as
Speaker 3: we know, that is an inalienable right that belongs to parents.
Speaker 1: Well, I agree, aarin. So when will you know if
Speaker 1: they're taking up your case?
Speaker 3: So hopefully September or October when they call conference, they
Speaker 3: will make that decision. But again, you know, it's a
Speaker 3: big deal for it to be sitting there. Pam Bondi
Speaker 3: actually was our lead attorney before she took another job,
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of eyes on this issue and
Speaker 3: on this case. And it wouldn't just set precedent here
Speaker 3: in Colorado, that would set precedent in the entire country
Speaker 3: that schools must pass a policy that parents will be
Speaker 3: notified when their child is transitioned.
Speaker 2: Like I wasn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think for sure. I realized that the people
Speaker 1: who say, you know, we're protecting the kids, that is
Speaker 1: an assumption that every parent is the kind of parent
Speaker 1: who would react badly and abusively to a child, And
Speaker 1: that assumption is flat out wrong. So I'm glad you
Speaker 1: guys are fighting this. What else were we going to
Speaker 1: talk about, because I gotta take a break. What was
Speaker 1: the other thing?
Speaker 2: Erin?
Speaker 1: We were stacking them all up before we did this.
Speaker 3: Uh, well, our thirteenth twelve lawsuit, so defending EDCPAN and PKCEE.
Speaker 3: We filed this letter to DPS, but we also filed
Speaker 3: a federal lawsuit against house built thirteen twelve.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what, We're going to talk about that
Speaker 1: later when the lawsuit moves further along. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: that later. But keep doing what you're doing protect kids.
Speaker 1: Colorado is a wonderful organization. If you as a parent
Speaker 1: or a grandparent, even if your kids are out of
Speaker 1: the schools, you need to understand that some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that's going on is absolutely crazy and they're helping
Speaker 1: protect our kids.
Speaker 2: Erin, Thanks so much for your time today, Thanks for
Speaker 2: having me