Families sue Douglas County schools over bias response

Legal filing alleges discrimination, inaction

BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

ree families are suing the Douglas County School District over its response to a pattern of what is being described as racial abuse at Castle Rock Middle School and Douglas County High School.

Filed Aug. 2 in the U.S. District Court for Colorado, the complaint alleges numerous students and sta at the schools targeted four Black or biracial students with harassment, racial slurs and threats, depriving them of equal access to education.

Parents of the students led the complaint. e complaint de- scribes experiences of the children of Lacey Ganzy, Jon and Misty Martin, and Nadarian and Alexis Clark. It lists Douglas County School District, the school board and Castle Rock Middle School e children are not named in the lawsuit to protect their privacy. e complaint argues that the racial harassment of the students is a consequence of a district culture that doesn’t value educational equity, speci cally alleging School Board President Mike Peterson and board members Kaylee Winegar, Becky Myers and Christy Williams contributed to that culture. e complaint says the district violated the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment by denying equal educational opportunities to the students involved.

Principal John Viet as defendants.

Instead of a speci ed amount in the lawsuit, the families are re- questing a jury trial to determine damages owed.

“Indeed, in a glaring act of callousness, the School District and Board of Education have yet to take formal action in their entity capacities, and many individual Board Members have yet to condemn these well-documented injustices,” the complaint says. “ e indi erence of School District leaders explains how such levels of hate and racism were permitted to fester.”

In April, Ganzy and her son reported a group chat of more than 100 Castle Rock Middle School students where some allegedly used the n-word, threatened to shoot Black people, shared racist memes and spoke about bringing back the Holocaust.

Ganzy’s daughter, who was

Now, the county government wants to get more involved in addressing that question. But one of the county’s three elected leaders doesn’t support going down that path.

However, with two voices outweighing the dissenter, the county has put out a call for Douglas County residents to apply to serve on a new entity called the county Water Commission. at body is expected to create a plan regarding water supply and conservation, among other aspects of water in the county.

When Commissioner Abe Laydon voiced support for creating a water commission, his colleague, George Teal, agreed.

“ e people of Douglas County do care about water resources, and they want their county commissioners involved,” Teal told Colorado Community Media.

Commissioner Lora omas opposes forming a water commission, calling it “totally unnecessary, a waste of time and e ort and money.” e forming of the new body comes against the backdrop of a controversial proposal to pump about 22,000 acrefeet of water per year to Douglas County from the San Luis Valley, a region of Southern Colorado. (An acre-foot is the equivalent of a one-foot-deep pool about the size of a football eld.) Renewable Water Resources is the private company that proposed the project.

“You don’t do a water commission that’s going to be no cost,” omas said.

Last year, Laydon joined omas in deciding not to move forward with that project while Teal continues to support it.

“Everything’s on the table as far as I’m concerned,” Teal said in early August. “We get another ve or six years of rainy summers, OK, maybe then we can start to be picky and choosy.”

Still opposing the Renewable Water Resources project, omas expressed concern that the county’s formation of a water commission is “another swing at that ball.”

Asked whether any representatives of RWR have spoken with county o cials about the water commission, Teal said: “I think I did see that Sean Tonner, he’s one of the principals of RWR … has put in an application to be on the water commission.” omas said her understanding is that county sta are treating information about who has applied as a non-public matter and will not release information until nalists are chosen.

Teal said he has been friends with Tonner for 20 years.

“We are very likely to drink beer together and have a social visit. He may bring it up,” Teal said. “But otherwise, that hasn’t happened yet.” Teal said he hasn’t seen the application itself.

Makeup of commission ose who join the water commission may include local elected o cials, those with experience on water district or metro district boards; others with management oversight or with a professional background in water; and a representative who can serve as the “voice of rural Douglas County,” the county said in a news release. e county’s water commission will commence in the third quarter of this year and meet six to eight times during the rst 12 months with the focus of developing a Douglas County Water Plan. e county envisions that the water commission will integrate existing water provider plans into the Douglas County Water Plan.

Metro districts are a type of government entity that carries out some government functions, such as the Highlands Ranch Metro District that oversees some services in that community.

Applicants must be Douglas County residents, and the county asked for applications by close of business Aug. 11.

Di erent proposals e water commission would digest information and make recommendations to the overall board of county commissioners, Teal said. e county commissioners are Douglas County’s elected leaders, above the county’s other “commissions” that deal with certain topics of policy.

Teal favored the idea of assembling a commission of residents that could determine the appropriate steps to take for the future of the county’s water supply.

It’s better to have input from others “rather than (have it be) something that just Abe and I would do,” Teal said.

Asked whether the county’s formation of a water commission is a way to eventually gain more momentum and support behind the RWR plan, Teal said: “I don’t need a water commission to do that.”

“I am very aware of the criticisms of that proposal. But with where we are — I mean, great, we’ve got (water) falling every day from the sky,” Teal said. “But we’re coming o (many) years of hard drought, and water has become a very serious aspect of our business.” e criticisms he hears include the projected cost and how much time it would take to deliver, he said.

“Concerns that a water program that brings water into the county would cost too much and take too long? ey all cost too much and they all take too long,” Teal said. He also has heard the concerns about taking water from the San Luis Valley.

“Far as I know … there is no taking water there. All water will be bought from willing sellers. And if there are no willing sellers, that’s where the deal starts to fall apart,” Teal said.

Teal pointed to another water transmission plan, involving the South Platte River and the Parker area’s water provider.

“It was kind of pitched as an alternative to the RWR plan,” Teal said. e Parker Water and Sanitation District has worked on a project that would partner with a water conservancy district in Sterling, a town in Eastern Colorado, to capture unused water during high runo years from the South Platte River there and store it to pipe back to the town. e project won’t impact existing water rights and won’t allow buy-and-dry of nearby agriculture, Ron Redd, the district manager of Parker Water, has said.

Teal said he wants to know more about the cost structure.

“No one has ever shown me that. If it does cost less, I’d like to see that — and hey, they go to No. 1 priority super quick. No problem,” Teal said.

One of Teal’s ideas for the water commission is that it could land the county new plans.

“ is is just an idea — this is not a laid-in-stone plan — but maybe it will attract water proposals” that are more viable than the South Platte plan or the San Luis Valley plan, Teal said.

Money in Parker

Real estate developers interested in exporting water they own from the San Luis Valley to Douglas County have contributed thousands of dollars to candidates for the Parker Water and Sanitation District Board, one of the largest water providers in the county, according to reporting from Fresh Water News.

Recently, Robert Kennah won a seat on the Parker water board and had received two donations from partners in RWR, a real estate development group whose principals include former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. e contributions were made by RWR principals John Kim and Hugh Bernardi, according to lings at the Colorado Secretary of State’s O ce, Fresh Water News reported.

A second RWR-backed candidate, Kory Nelson, also received $10,000 in donations from RWR, but did not win a seat on the Parker water board. Nelson has contested the results of the election.

If Nelson had won, RWR would have ties to three members of the ve-member board, according to Redd, Fresh Water News reported.

Parker board member Brooke Booth is related by marriage to RWR principal Tonner, Redd said, according to the reporting.