The Progressive War on Our Children:
Cañon City Is Ground Zero in the Fight

by Charlotte Burrous,
The Fremont Crusader

More than 100 people gathered in the Cañon City School Board District office while another 100 or more gathered in the Cañon City Middle School auditorium to watch the video of what their school board was going to do with the proposed AC-E3 Transgender Policy, which is available at www.canoncityschool.org.
Heavily guarded with Cañon City Police and security, the crowd was respectful and took turns speaking their opinions on the policy. Most of the individuals spoke against the transgender policy with only a very few speaking for it. 
At the beginning of the ‘public comment section’ of the meeting, the school attorney, Melissa Barber, gave her understanding of the Colorado state and federal laws. Her opinion was the policy meets those laws.“In the State of Colorado in 2021, the Colorado General Assembly amended the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act to include protective categories, gender identity and gender expression,” she said. “Transgender was declared by statute that discrimination based on sex include sex, special orientation, gender identity and gender expression as an individual’s way of reflecting about gender to the outside world. … Each Board of Education has to follow the law with a policy, specifying what the school district (is doing to protect transgender persons from discrimination).”
Note: The Cañon City RE-1 School Board recently added “gender identity and gender expression” to a portion of one of their [existing] policies.
As far as the federal law, Kristin declared it said “No resident of the United States shall on the basis of sex be excluded on petitioners or projected to discrimination under any education program or activity.” [Actual “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, except that: (followed by nine exceptions…)]
On the contrary, John Hamrick talked about not being able to ask any adult if they’re gay or transgender or any other question about their sexual preference by law. “What upside down cockamamie reason is it OK to ask that (same) question to students?” he said. “I can hear that answer, too. [The board response probably would be], ‘But John, we don’t ask. They just tell,’ which of course [translates] to the district to [show them] how to and some would say ‘groom’ students to become transgender.”
Hamrick then quoted Colorado Revised Statute Code Section 18:6-403, which states, “The general assembly hereby finds and declares: That the sexual exploitation of children constitutes a wrongful invasion of the child’s right of privacy and results in social, developmental and emotional injury to the child; and a child under the age of 18 years is incapable of giving an informed consent to the use … of his or her body for sexual purpose.”

In the same vein, Pastor Sean Meagher spoke against the board policy. “I’m no lawyer, but in an attempt to become educated on this subject, I’ve consulted with lawyers, regarding this policy as it is written. I’ve spent hours reading and researching the current statement of this policy. In doing so, it’s become clear [that] the explanation that has been given to us regarding the district’s need to institute this policy, which was ‘we have to do this in order to keep compliant with current state and federal laws’ is not completely accurate. Even though there may be many aspects of this policy that hints towards compliance, it’s clear most of aspects of this policy are being put forth, only because they advance the agenda and worldview of some municipal districts to grievously accept their way of life and their way of living. In regards to this policy, I take issue [with] the idea that it’s good or right for any staff or for any city to have any shared spaces in bathrooms, locker rooms or traveling to hotels. The single greatest issue I have with this policy had nothing to do with law or compliance. This policy permits and even encourages staff to [prevent] parental notification or hide and conceal social and emotional gender/transgender of the student. If the staff or administration determines that it is ‘best practice’ to do so.”
“These kids are OUR kids. They’re not your kids. They are our kids and you are wrong and pridefully arrogant to think or believe that the school is best for our kids. [The school] believes that the ‘best practice’ is to keep [these] things about our kids from us who are their parents.”
When Pastor Meagher asked each one of the school board members if they voted for this transgender policy, he was told they would not respond to his question. (NOTE: All five voted for it at the July 25 meeting.)
In the meantime, a man named George, said he got a copy of the transgender policy. “After reading it, I realized this school board didn’t write it. I did the research and found as far as this policy goes, it’s straight out of the Communist Manifesto. It destroys America’s core values. … Many school boards are fighting this.” Twenty governors and their administrations are fighting this policy. “I see only one way to stop it. That’s for school boards to petition the courts [for an injunction against this transgender policy].”
Aaron Wolking also spoke and said he opposes the policy, as well. “I’m finding major problems in both the construction of this policy and the progressive ideology behind it. I would like to note for the record that hate, bigotry and any kind of phobia played absolutely no part in my opposition to this policy. Fear and ignorance played no part in my opposition to this policy. Plain and simple, truth matters.
“A statistic was referenced here that one out of every 100 people are intersex. That is statistically untrue. According to peer-reviewed medical literature, the rate is 0.018 percent of the population that represent the intersex. Truth matters. … It’s indefensible of the school district [that] they would create a policy that does not [contain] a plan to educate staff member[s] to report to parents that their children are experiencing gender dysphoria. [This implies] that the parents are the enemy of these children. [It is WRONG] to keep this information from the parents, from the people who love and care for these children better and longer than anyone else.”
Aaron continued, “As a father of an eight-year-old daughter, if she experienced any wishes or thoughts of being transgender, it is essential for me to know about it without delay. It’s not something that’s going to be left to a [completely] ambiguous term like ‘best practice,’ which essentially allows educators [and the Board of Education] to do whatever they feel like.”
Also speaking, Jessie Daniels said she and her entire family believed children should be safe at school, be taught math, English, history and geography instead of this progressive ideology. “We believe truth is love. Sometimes truth can hurt feelings,” she said. “We believe in being held accountable for all of our behaviors. We believe we’re created in the image of God. In Genesis 1:27, we find ‘God created male and female.’
He created them to reproduce.”
In addition, Jessie and her family believe that Satan reigns on Earth. Satan is the master of all lies and works only to steal, kill, destroy (and focus on money), Daniels added. “We believe in two genders,” she continued. “We know a man can never be a woman. We believe men will never have menstrual cycles and they will never birth a baby. As far as we know, a woman can never be a male. No matter how much they feel they are, no matter how much they mutilate their bodies, the truth is they will never be a man. Why [does the School Board lie to the parents and] our children?”
Some asked how much money would the district get if they pass the policy or lose if they don’t. Several spoke about getting involved by going to the website www.fremontcountyschools.com.
After the public spoke, Board President Robin Reeser thanked everyone for speaking.
“This proposed policy was born out of a need for a decision, a desire to provide guidance for our school leaders and it [complies with] the state and federal law,” she said.
Crusader Editorial comment: What was sorely lacking is Robin Reeser never once stated anything about giving parents the right to make the decision about their children. So essentially, the board has already made its decision if one listened to her at the July 25 meeting, where all five of them voted for it on first reading.
It was normal at the end of the meeting for the school board to disappear into a separate room for an executive session, regarding this policy. When the board reappeared, however, they immediately adjourned the meeting without stating what decision, if any, was made.
In the meantime what are the concerned citizens doing? That decision will depend on what the board decides. There are several options. Parents are the ones who are responsible for their children. Any board who doesn’t recognize that or adhere to the fundamental Christian principle needs to be dealt with.
(Editor/GG: Thank goodness our school board is solid conservative. But this Cañon City disaster shows that EVERY local election, no matter what for, is vitally important. The liberal cancer starts with one lib election win and then it spreads. It only takes one to start the lib tumor growth. YOUR VOTE COUNTS.)