DPS Vice President Auon’tai Anderson shared a video of a room at McAuliffe International that had an “incarceration room” where students were locked inside.Courtesy Auon’tai Anderson

McAuliffe International – under the watch of recently-fired school principal Kurt Dennis – has had an “incarceration room” where students, likely those with disabilities, were locked inside, Denver Public Schools board members said on Thursday.

Dennis’ lawyer rejected the board members’ characterization of the room. 

In a press conference, Denver School Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said that a “courageous” whistleblower brought it to his attention this week.

“Students do not go to prison when they walk up at 8 a.m. They go to school,” Anderson said.

Anderson added, “That was not a de-escalation room, that was a prison.”

The matter is being investigated by DPS and was referred to the Denver Police Department, Anderson added.

Photos shared by Anderson on Wednesday show a latch on the outside of the door to Room 121E and a padlock on a window at McAuliffe, an innovation school in the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone (NDIZ). The room was also described as having holes in the drywall from “student rage and incarceration,” according to a work order Anderson provided to the media.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán and Director Scott Esserman inferred the students allegedly held at the room might have been Black or Latino. They also blamed “systemic racism” and discussed the necessity for the district to educate all students.

“This is not a single incident,” Esserman said.

Dennis’ attorney, David Lane, offered a very different explanation.

The latch, he said, was placed on the door nine years ago, but has not been used since after DPS officials instructed the McAuliffe principal not to lock students inside the “de-escalation room.”

Lane added that the room was used for just two students last academic year, as dictated by their “Individual Education Program” for special education students and was approved by the district, a school psychologist and the students’ parents.

DPS permits the use of what’s called a “de-escalation” room as a sort of time out for agitated students to calm down. But the district disallows any practice of placing students in the room by themselves and the door should not be closed or locked.

“This is not a torture chamber for black and brown children that DPS is trying to make it out to be,” Lane said.

Lane added, “We’re talking about violent and dangerous children.”

While casting doubt on the authenticity of the photo, saying he doesn’t know when photographs of the latch were taken, Lane offered no explanation as to why the latch remained on the door nearly 10 years after he said it was installed.

Instead, Lane criticized the district for what he described as a coordinated effort to explain firing Dennis last month.

“This is a made-up excuse designed to turn the public against Kurt Dennis,” Lane said.

The firing, Lane earlier said, stemmed from an interview Dennis gave to Denver Gazette news partner 9News after two administrators at East High School were shot by a student in March. In that 9News interview, Dennis said he received pressure from district officials to accommodate potentially dangerous students, including one accused of attempted murder.

In the wake of the second shooting at East High this year, parents and safety advocates have called on DPS to overhaul its discipline matrix, which is used to determine when a student is expelled, among other things.

AdvocacyDenver, a nonprofit group that advocates for children and adults with development and intellectual disabilities, said it has lodged at least six complaints against McAuliffe International under the leadership of Dennis for its treatment of special education students over the past decade.

That’s more than any other school in the district, said Pamela Bisceglia, executive director of Advocacy Denver. Bisceglia attended Thursday’s press conference organized by the DPS board members.

“We’ve observed overtime that the principal’s (Kurt Dennis) response to privilege is very different than his response to poor or minority parents,” Bisceglia said.

AdvocacyDenver typically tries to resolve issues before filing a complaint, Bisceglia said, adding that, in general, complaints are rare. 

Governed by federal law under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, special education is defined as specially designed instruction – at no additional cost – to meet the needs of a child with a disability.

Over the past 10 years, AdvocacyDenver said it has filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and the Colorado Department of Education. Those McAuliffe complaints, Bisceglia said, range from inadequate space, books and curriculum to students having to “earn” the right to eat in the lunchroom.

At least one federal complaint from AdvocacyDenver in 2021 involving 33 DPS schools, including McAuliffe, alleged disparate discipline for minority students – particularly Black males – is still pending, according to Bisceglia.  

“I can’t tell you how many times the district has gone into the school (McAuliffe) and provided training,” Bisceglia said. “They check the box, but I don’t know that we’ve always seen the change that we’ve hoped for.”

Innovation schools, such as McAuliffe, provide autonomy structures under state law similar to charter schools, which enjoy advantages not available to traditional schools.

An innovation zone, or iZone, is a collection of schools under a separate governing board.

As such, NDIZ has direct control over its schools, which includes McAuliffe.

Colleen O’Brien, the NDIZ executive director, did not return phone calls seeking comment on Thursday.

DPS has two iZones and about 50 innovation schools.

A petition circulating with more than 6,000 signatures is demanding the district reinstate Dennis.

The board is expected to take a formal vote on Dennis’ termination later this month. Lane said he expects to file a federal complaint after that Aug. 24 meeting.