Announcements

The following are remarks made by DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg during a press conference on April 29, 2010: 

Our community is deeply outraged by the new Arizona law. I have heard clearly and passionately from our students, our parents, our teachers, our principals and our community members about their deep concerns. Our community deeply values the rich diversity of the Denver Public Schools and the dignity of each and every member of our community.  

We fear that this new law will encourage racial profiling and subject individuals to arbitrary stops and harassment based on their ethnic or racial status. This violates our basic values of human dignity, of non-discrimination, and of equal protection under the law for all. So today, the Denver Public Schools is taking the step of restricting our employees on district-sponsored trips from traveling to Arizona.  

We are concerned that under this new law our employees could be subject to arbitrary and discriminatory stops and harassment. We are also deeply concerned that no law like this ever happen in the State of Colorado.  

Clearly, what is going on in Arizona reinforces the need for comprehensive immigration legislation at the federal level. We certainly hope that such comprehensive immigration legislation would contain a key priority of the Denver Public Schools and our community-the DREAM Act, which is to ensure that all of our graduates and graduates of public schools throughout this country have the opportunity upon graduating to go to college.  

We look forward to working with our Community Advisory Panel to discuss any additional measures the district might take.  And I'm deeply grateful to our community leaders and our civil rights leaders for leading this panel: To Nita Gonzales, who is a civil rights leader and the principal of one of our schools, to Paul Sandoval, a former school board member and State Senator, and to Landri Taylor, President of the Urban League of Denver, for agreeing to co-chair the Community Advisory Panel.  

And we certainly encourage others-other school districts, other public and private organizations and other individuals-to express with their voices and with their actions their deep concern that this law not take effect and not be replicated anywhere else in the United States.