Colorado GOP calls on families to pull kids from public schools due to ‘LGBTQ indoctrination’

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The Colorado GOP recommends parents find alternatives to the state’s public school system after they claim recently passed legislation is pushing education toward indoctrination.

The GOP put out a newsletter Tuesday titled, “LGBTQ indoctrination in public schools.” It said the Republican party is trying to “save Colorado children from progressive Democrats who want to turn more kids trans by requiring teachers to use "pronouns" that do not make any sense and cause gender confusion.”

This is specifically in response to House Bill 1039, which was recently signed into law and requires teachers to call students by their “chosen name.” Darcy Schoening, the Director of Special Initiatives for the Colorado GOP and who wrote the letter in the GOP newsletter, said this violates parental rights and the teacher’s “1st and 14th amendment rights, to opt-out of forced speech and to be able to express their religious freedom.”

“The original intention of public schools was to educate kids,” said Schoening. “It wasn't to indoctrinate them, it wasn't to change their beliefs, and it certainly wasn't to drive a wedge between a parent and a child and say that the state knows best.”

She now recommends parents remove their children from public schools and find alternative solutions, like private schools or even homeschooling.

“Until we can get to a place where parents have some rights in this state and a parent can say, ‘You need to use my child's God given name,’ I do believe that most parents would be better served looking at alternatives to the public education system.”

In her letter she specifically pointed to Grand Peak Academy, a charter school in D49. She alleged a male teacher at the school, who went by “Ms. Sparks,” was using a girls bathroom and there was nothing the school could do about it given the state’s laws.

KRDO13 Investigates reached out to Grand Peak Academy about the GOP’s letter and these allegations. The Board of Directors said in a statement the GOP article has “significant errors.”

"The Grand Peak Academy Board of Directors has reviewed the statement made by the GOP article and found significant errors in what was stated. As a publicly funded charter school, we are and we will continue to follow the laws set forth by the state and federal government. We care deeply about our student’s safety and education, and we will continue to provide the safest and best learning environment for our students. Grand Peak Academy has no further official comment at this time."

The El Paso County Democrats said the GOP’s article was just a political ploy before elections start later this year.

“It's how they motivate their base with manufactured outrage,” said Rob Rogers, a Vice Chair for the El Paso County Democrats. “You can watch this cycle happening in several of the past election cycles. It's just theater. The types of things, the fear that they're instilling within their constituents, is made up.”

Rogers said the real threat to the public education system is not state legislation but this rhetoric by the state GOP.

“The major problems are from people like the state GOP and what they're pushing right now to make people lose trust in the public education system,” he said.

In the article the GOP is asking for support to an opposition resolution to HB1039. They are even asking teachers to sue the state, claiming this law is a violation of constitutional rights by forcing teachers to use “transgender pronouns.”

“It's really not for the state to decide, for the state to step in and say, ‘We know better than parents,’” Schoening said.