![]() These members respond to more than 235,000 calls for service per year utilizing 35 engine companies, 17 ladder companies, 24 first-line medic units, 5 critical alert medic units, 1 heavy rescue and other specialty units. More than 1,600 members are assigned across Community Risk Reduction, Safety and Member Services, and Emergency Operations management branches. Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.We are a ISO Class 1 department serving a geographic area of 92 square miles with a daytime population exceeding 1,000,000 and a residential population of more than 620,000. “I feel very proud that we were able to accomplish this, and I really do hope that it sets a precedent and encourages other librarians to come forward and speak out against these types of censorship so that libraries can do what they’re meant to do which is serve and value and represent everyone in the community,” Parks said. When Parks submitted a rebuttal to the warning, she was fired, according to the state investigation.Īttempts to censor programming or ban books at public libraries have proliferated across the country, led by politically conservative leaders who have taken particular issue with books and events focused on the LGBTQ community and race. Parks received a written warning for her “negative behavior” after opposing the renaming and cancellation of the programs, the state civil rights investigation found. Parks’ supervisors pointed to the policies when telling her to rename the Erie Community Library’s “Read Woke” book club because the word “woke” was polarizing, and to cancel two programs she’d planned - a teen anti-racism workshop and a teen program focused on LGBTQ history. Shortly before Parks was fired, the High Plains Library District Board of Trustees approved a policy stating library programs “should not be intended to persuade participants to a particular point of view” or be “intentionally inflammatory or polarizing.” The library district fired Parks, who worked at the Erie Community Library, in 2021 after she objected to the cancelation of the youth programs that she had planned.Ĭolorado Board of Education approves adding contested LGBTQ, POC language back to social study standards ![]() The High Plains Library District did not respond to a request for comment. These educators and librarians are just trying to accurately educate our youth so we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past and we don’t devolve into a racist, homophobic society, and their livelihoods are getting impacted.” “We’re all hoping this gets people to step back and reframe the issue and think about what’s at stake here - fundamental civil rights and First Amendment rights and students’ rights to access information. “There is a massive move of these terminations happening to librarians and educators,” Halpern said. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission voted to accept the settlement at its monthly public meeting Friday. Librarian Brooky Parks’ attorney Iris Halpern called the outcome of the Colorado Civil Rights Division’s investigation of High Plains Library District a “groundbreaking settlement,” saying it is among the first public settlements in the nation amid a wave of conservative pushback against LGBTQ- and race-related library books and programming. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close MenuĪ Weld County library district has agreed to pay $250,000 to a librarian it fired two years ago after she objected to the cancellation of programs for youth of color and LGBTQ teens, part of a legal settlement with the state that also requires the district to revise its policies to be more inclusive.
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