A candidate for the Cherry Creek School Board is suing the school district in federal court, claiming they discriminated against her by requiring her to wear a mask, despite her disabilities that make mask-wearing inadvisable.

Shumé Navarro is represented by the right-leaning Public Trust Institute, which has filed ethics complaints against Democrats in the last several years.

Navarro claimed the district has refused to provide accommodations that would allow her to participate fully in candidate forums. 

According to a statement from the institute, Schumé Navarro has “two medically diagnosed disabilities, including a psychological disorder that stems from physical abuse as a child related to suffocation. This condition, which predates COVID-19, causes panic and difficulty breathing when her face and nose are covered. Navarro also suffers from a facial injury that makes breathing difficult even when her face is uncovered.”

The filing said she has a nasal deformity where she can breathe, with difficulty, only through one nostril. Both disabilities are well-documented in her medical history, the lawsuit states.

In recent candidate forums, the lawsuit alleges the district: 

• Publicly shamed Navarro “when she attempted to pull the district-provided mask down to reduce her anxiety and introduce herself to voters”
• Told Navarro that she would be treated like a trespasser and barred from ever entering school property again if she didn’t wear a mask
• Refused to discuss an accommodation to allow Navarro to participate in candidate forums, including allowing her to appear remotely

“This lawsuit is not about a political statement on masks. It is about medicine, science and my fundamental right to be able to participate fully in candidate forums despite my disabilities,” Navarro said in the PTI statement. “Mask advocates constantly assert society should ‘follow the science.’ Since I have two documented disabilities that preclude me from safely wearing a face covering, Cherry Creek School District officials should shelve their ideological mask-compliance mania and follow the science in my case. It’s a shame I have to go to court to obtain basic compassion and enforce fairness for people with disabilities.”

Navarro is the secretary of the Arapahoe County Republican Party. She told iHeart Radio in July that critical race theory is perpetuating in the school district. The district, however, claims it does not teach critical race theory.

The case is 21-cv-02621-DDD, Navarro v. Cherry Creek School District.