Colorado Springs Republicans are set to bring forward a bill seeking to protect students as schools in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have transitioned to virtual learning. 

“E-learning is new for so many students and families and teachers and school districts,” Rep. Tim Geitner, R-Falcon, said in an interview. “But in that, there became some stories and concerns around navigating this new environment and so that’s really the premise of the bill.” 

One story in particular caught the eye of the Colorado Springs state legislative delegation, as well as the national media. Isaiah Elliot, a student at Grand Mountain School in Widefield School District #3, last year was suspended for five days after his seventh-grade teacher reported that he was “waiving (sic) around a toy gun” during an online art class. 

Isaiah’s mother Dani Elliott said she received an email from her son’s teacher alerting her of the incident. While Elliott said she assured her son’s teacher it was a toy gun, shortly after a sheriff’s deputy, who works as a school resource officer, went to her home. 

“Let me remind you all, my son was playing with a perfectly legal toy that the toy industry targets toward children his age,” Elliott said in a recorded video on her Facebook page. “So for me to have to explain to my son why he can’t play with a toy in the privacy of his own home because he is perceived as a threat, it’s devastating. And that’s heart-breaking to me.” 

The deputy talked to Elliot and her son about “the seriousness of the situation” and how it “could potentially lead to criminal charges in the future,” according to footage from the sheriff’s office. 

The bill from Geitner, Rep. Mary Bradfield, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, would address the incident by enshrining in state law a provision that would prohibit schools from suspending or expelling student based on an item seen on camera during virtual learning unless it constituted “repeated interference” with a teacher’s ability to instruct other students.  

The proposal would also: 

The provisions in the bill are retroactive to March 23, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But the bill is set to face opposition from some educators, school districts and advocacy groups. So far, more than a half dozen groups have either asked for the bill to be amended or outright oppose it – with the Colorado Education Association, the Colorado Rural Schools Alliance, Littleton Public Schools and the Poudre School District falling in the later category.  

Geitner said through the course of the stakeholder process, he’s heard the most concern about the measure restricting teachers’ ability to impose requirements on a student’s physical environment.  

“You don’t want to necessarily disrupt classroom management and that sort of thing and so I think that’s really where the biggest hurdle is,” he said. “So that’s being looked at. How do we tweak that, how do we still allow for teachers to manage the e-learning classroom, but without necessarily infringing upon a student or their family as they are conducting this e-learning within the private residence of their own home.“ 

Still, Geitner seemed optimistic about the bill’s prospects and said he had been proactive about touching base with members of the House Education Committee, which is scheduled to hear the bill this week. 

“I think there’s obviously a few more conversations to be had but at this point I have connected with every member of the committee,” he said. 

The bill from Geitner, Bradfield and Lundeen is just one of a slate of bills members of the Colorado Springs delegation will present to their legislative colleagues this week. Also up for a hearing: