Integrated schools at the core of DSST Public Schools
In the Feb. 1 article, “Local Schools Leading the Way in Integration,” we were satisfied to read about new efforts in the Greater Park Hill and Stapleton communities to push for more integrated schools. As educators, we’re encouraged that our colleagues understand the moral imperative of serving students from all backgrounds.
However, as leaders of schools that were founded on educational equity for all, we were disappointed by the failure of the article to mention schools that have been doing this work for years and achieving outstanding results. Our DSST: Conservatory Green and DSST: Stapleton campuses proudly serve diverse student populations, both in terms of race and socioeconomic backgrounds. Since our founding in 2004, we have committed to serve as many free and reduced lunch (FRL) students as non-FRL students. In a district where almost 70% of the student population is considered FRL, this is the only thing that makes sense. We purposefully create equal opportunities, with a floor of 50% of our seats reserved for students who qualify for FRL.
Our Conservatory Green and Stapleton middle schools campuses, both comprising two-thirds FRL students, consistently rank among Denver’s top middle schools. And DSST: Stapleton High School is ranked as one of the top high schools in the state. Our FRL students (53%) scored an average of 1111 on the 2017 SAT, the highest average score in Colorado for that group. And our non-FRL students scored an average 1274. Both were well above the state average of 1014. We’re certain our new DSST: Conservatory Green High School will achieve similar results.
DSST actively works toward building school communities where every student develops a strong sense of self while also understanding and appreciating the community to which they belong. Students and staff gather every day for “Morning Meeting,” where they celebrate the campus community, participate in team-building activities, and support each other in a visible and vibrant ways. We also have students participate in Advisories, small-class gatherings where they closely interact and learn from their peers on a daily basis.
The result: High-performing schools where all students excel. DSST campuses are proof that integrated schools work. As School Directors, we applaud the neighborhood’s efforts to step up in this realm, and hope this will be only the beginning of not only serving a diverse student body but also ensuring an equitable and exceptional educational outcomes.
-John Clark, DSST: Conservatory Green Middle School
-Jeff Desserich, DSST: Stapleton High School
-Adeel Khan, DSST: Conservatory Green High School
-Dan Sullivan, DSST: Stapleton Middle School
Ensure all points of view on Stapleton name change
I am concerned that the decision on eliminating the Stapleton name from our community is being controlled by a very small group of individuals, including many who don’t reside in Stapleton. A survey by the Stapleton United Neighbors revealed that two-thirds of respondents did not want a name change. Yet this small, vocal group continues to insist that our community bend to their will.
One of my concerns is the clouding of the issue with information that really has no place in a discussion which should be fact based. An example from the recently held Listening Session:
A woman said she was frightened while walking in Stapleton because someone was walking behind her on the same sidewalk – Perhaps his house was in that direction. Her fear is an example of the frenzy that opponents of the Stapleton name have whipped up and really has nothing to do with the name of our community. If she only feels safe if no one is walking on the same sidewalk, she is never going to be able to leave her house.
So many of the arguments for the name change focus on nebulous, vague claims that the change will foster more positive attitudes about inclusion and diversity. There are just a few, fact-based statements that should be considered:
- Stapleton joined the KKK when he was a young man.
- That KKK membership probably got him votes when he ran for the mayor’s office
- After winning the election, Stapleton renounced the KKK and fired the KKK associated head of the police department.
- The KKK, in turn, renounced Stapleton and that probably cost him some votes in the next election
Those are the facts and we are left with one question: Does Stapleton deserve credit for changing his mind and leaving the KKK or is there no redemption for having once belonged to the group. All the other arguments are merely a distraction from the key points of the discussion. All major religions honor redemption, so it seems that concept should be part of this discussion
Justice Hugo Black, who also belonged to the KKK when he was younger, later renounced it and became a civil rights champion as a judge and Supreme Court Justice. He is credited with playing a vital role in passing civil rights legislation that did so much to move our nation away from bigotry. It seems that, if we are going to forgive Justice Black for his youthful mistake and honor him for changing, then Stapleton also deserves credit for his redemption. Respecting Stapleton for changing his mind is a positive example for all our children—that people can and do change and become a better person.
Thanks,
-Bert Singleton
I’d like to correct some misinformation in Bert Singleton’s letter:
1. “A [Spring 2017] survey by the Stapleton United Neighbors revealed that two-thirds of respondents did not want a name change.”
In fact, respondents were not asked if they wanted a name change. They were asked how comfortable they were with the name Stapleton. 51.7% were completely or somewhat comfortable , and 9.6 % were completely uncomfortable. It is also true that 433 people have signed a petition to rename Stapleton and that a 4-hour “listening session” was held in Dec. 2017, with188 participants. An independent analysis concluded that “more participants agreed that the name, Stapleton, needed to be changed.” (Front Porch, Sept. 2017)
2. “Stapleton joined the KKK when he was a young man.”
In fact, Stapleton was born in 1869, so he was 52 years old when the Klan first announced itself in Denver in 1921. He first ran for mayor two years later. Not a young man. (Wikipedia)
3. “After winning the election, Stapleton renounced the KKK . . .”
In fact, during his first campaign of 1923 there were rumors that Stapleton was a Klansman, but he hid membership from the public . Under pressur, but without denouncing the Klan, he made a public statement that condemned secret organizations. But after his election, Stapleton appointed Klan members to key roles in city government, particularly in the police department. When his membership was discovered, there was a recall election in 1924, during which Stapleton sought Klan financial backing and political support. He appeared at a Klan rally on Tabletop Mountain in Golden and told the assembled crowd, ‘I will work with the Klan and for the Klan in the coming election, heart and soul. And if I am re-elected, I shall give the Klan the kind of administration it wants.’” Stapleton survived recall. Stapleton may have opposed individual Klansmen, buy he never renounced the Klan. Rather, he balked under the strict control of the Grand Dragon, John Galen Locke, and when Locke was investigated for tax evasion and later jailed, there was a split in the Klan. Then Stapleton turned on the police department and fired Candlish, the KKK police chief. As a result, the Klan ousted the mayor —not the other way around. (Sources: Phil Goodstein, In the Shadow of the Klan, The Denverite, Dec. 11, 2017)
Hi Bert. I’ve heard this argument from you before. Justice Hugo Black isn’t someone that I’m familiar with; however, from looking online, I wouldn’t call him a civil rights champion.
“Civil rights
As a senator, Black filibustered an anti-lynching bill.[70] However, during his tenure on the bench, Black established a record more sympathetic to the civil rights movement. He joined the majority in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), which invalidated the judicial enforcement of racially restrictive covenants. Similarly, he was part of the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education (1954) Court that struck down racial segregation in public schools. Black remained determined to desegregate the South and would call for the Supreme Court to adopt a position of “immediate desegregation” in 1969’s Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education.
Black wrote the court’s majority opinion in Korematsu v. United States, which validated Roosevelt’s decision to intern Japanese Americans on the West Coast during World War II. The decision is an example of Black’s belief in the limited role of the judiciary; he validated the legislative and executive actions that led to internment, saying “it is unnecessary for us to appraise the possible reasons which might have prompted the order to be used in the form it was.”[71]
Black also tended to favor law and order over civil rights activism.[72][73] This led him to read the Civil Rights Act narrowly. For example, he dissented in a case reversing convictions of sit-in protesters, arguing to limit the scope of the Civil Rights Act.[74] In 1968 he said, “Unfortunately there are some who think that Negroes should have special privileges under the law.”[75] Black felt that actions like protesting, singing, or marching for “good causes” one day could lead to supporting evil causes later on; his sister-in-law explained that Black was “mortally afraid” of protesters. Black opposed the actions of some civil rights and Vietnam War protesters and believed that legislatures first, and courts second, should be responsible for alleviating social wrongs. Black once said he was “vigorously opposed to efforts to extend the First Amendment’s freedom of speech beyond speech,” to conduct.[61]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Black
Regardless, even if Justice Black became a civil rights champion (which it doesn’t seem he ever was); Stapleton certainly never fought for civil rights. In fact, the agency for Human Rights and Community Partnerships was created as a direct result of Stapleton’s role as mayor of Denver. At best, Stapleton ran the KKK out of town because they had lost their political power. It didn’t cost him votes. It wasn’t brave or righteous, it was self-serving. This is not redemption. This is not a person even attempted to right his wrongs. This is not a person to honor with the name of our neighborhood, street names, recreation center names, etc.