Candidate for Colorado Springs School District 11 addresses past involving riot
Mackenzie Stafford
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)— A website has been circulated on social media regarding certain candidates for the Colorado Springs School District 11 school board.
The website “Danger for D11” claims that Charles Johnson is not fit for the District 11 school board. The website is paid for by a committee called D11 Parents and Teachers.
However, Charles Johnson says he attended District 11 schools and says he wants to give back to the people who gave to him.
The group against Johnson references an arrest where Johnson faced multiple charges, but he was granted a plea deal from the District Attorney. He pleaded guilty to blocking the roadway during a protest outside a CSPD officer’s home in the wake of the death of De’Von Bailey. He says he paid a $150 fine and completed 100 hours of community service.
Now, Johnson says he’s taking all the lessons he learned to make a positive change.
“The statement from the D.A. said that there are better ways to go about your action. I mean, this is one way to do that, is running for office and being active in your community, doing better ways besides just protesting. And so I just want to be transparent with the people that you know, people make mistakes in their lives, but they’re also able to come back and rework, redo something different for themselves,” explained Charles Johnson.
Johnson hopes to amplify students’ and families’ voices while showing how he’s changed over the past 5 years.
“I want to just be that voice that, you know, no matter where you go through, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. And so that’s why I’m here, to run in front of people, make sure that voices are heard, and that the future generation has leadership, and that they can see someone like them represented at the highest level,” shared Johnson.
On the other hand, Steve Durham, a Colorado Board of Education member representing District 5, says he does not believe Johnson would be hired as a teacher and that school board members should be held to a higher standard.
“When any individual applies for a license or to work for any school district, they undergo a criminal background check. That criminal background check is not limited in time. And it includes not only convictions but arrests, so that the districts and the state Board of Education can track the history of any individual, and not just look at the final outcome that perhaps they took a plea bargain to a lesser charge. And as, it’s just highly unlikely that, that given the nature of these charges that any responsible hiring agent out of a school district could overlook, the level of violence that took place and, and reach a conclusion that only three years ago, that he took that plea, that it would be perfectly safe to allow a person like that in the classroom,” said Steve Durham.
The only guideline the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB) lists is that no person who has been convicted of a sexual offense against a child is eligible to serve on the school board.
Durham says that in his 10 years on the Colorado Board of Education, he has seen many licenses revoked, but never this.
“I think this is the most shocking example I’ve seen of someone who wants to be elected to the school board. And I’ve seen, it just most people come to, come to the voters, at least with clean hands. And I think this is not one of those cases,” said Durham.
Ultimately, both of the people we spoke with believe it’s up to the voters to educate themselves and decide the fate of the District 11 board.
All of the Colorado Springs School District 11 board candidates can be found here.