DEVELOPMENT AT ISSUE
SOUTH METRO’S LIFE BLOOD
T-MINUS 50 YEARS
POLITICS | PG 2
LOCAL | PG 12-13
NEWS | PG 22-23
Greenwood Village’s Bullock seeks re-election
The Villager’s publisher tours the world of water
S O U T H
M E T R O
Englewood’s ‘spaceship bank’ gets back to the future
VOLUME 35 • NUMBER 43 • SEPTEMBER 14, 2017
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In support of DACA
Cherry Creek High School student Shala Perez, front, whose parents came from Mexico, discusses her emotional reasons for taking part in last week’s walkout as her fellow students cheer in support. BELOW: CCHS students march through a King Soopers parking lot in a protest last week. Photos by Peter Jones
Cherry Creek students walk out, protest Trump decision “No hate. No fear. Immigrants are welcome here.” So chanted more than 70 of the estimated 150 Cherry Creek High School students who walked out of classes Aug. 8 to protest President Trump’s decision last week to phase out an Obama-era program that protects from deportation nearly 800,000 immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. “We support immigrants. We condemn racism. We
support DACA,” student Chris Williams said to applause in a brief speech to protesters. Shala Perez, a U.S. citizen whose parents came from Mexico, became emotional when asked why it was important to leave classes in protest of the action. “We need people to understand the struggles of immigrants, how they’re not accepted in today’s society,” she said. “… My mom sent me to school. She’s struggling at work each and every day to send me to school, put clothes on my back, put food in my stomach.” On Sept. 5, Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced the Trump administration would rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals over the next six months, leaving the permanent legal fate of so-called “Dreamers” to Congress. Cliona Bennett, a CCHS student from South Africa who moved here two years ago, saw the decision as disrespectful to well-intentioned young immigrants. “My parents are really working their ass off for this country, so this is honestly just disgusting to me,” she said. This group of stu-
dents, whose march circled around the CCHS campus, traveling down Union Avenue and around a nearby King Soopers, constituted one of several protests that occurred simultaneously in Cherry Creek Schools. In this case, a few school officials, some in a golf cart, followed the marchers, directing them to stay on passable walkways and remain safe from traffic as they marched through parking lots and across residential streets. Abbe Smith, spokeswoman for the school district, said it was important to ensure both the wellbeing and the free speech of the students involved. “In Cherry Creek, we value student voice,” she said. “We very much respect the rights of our students to express themselves freely. We also acknowledge the potential safety concerns associated with students leaving school during the day, which is why we had some security out there just monitoring the situation.” Students from three other high schools—Smoky Hill, Grandview and Eagle Crest—in the Cherry Creek system also participated in the coordinated protests, for an estimated total of about 500 students, Smith said. Some of the 150 CCHS students reportedly splintered into a separate protest near Cherry Creek Reservoir. The marches followed similar actions by students in Denver Public Schools earlier in the week. It remained unclear at press time if students would be disciplined for leaving classes.