The Denver Gazette

Teachers union elaborates on Anderson allegations

BY MELANIE ASMAR Chalkbeat Colorado Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

More details were revealed late last week about the Denver teachers union’s 2019 endorsement of Tay Anderson for school board and whether union leaders knew at the time about allegations of inappropriate behavior.

Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Gould said in a statement Thursday that the union’s political arm “received an anonymous letter containing unsubstantiated, nebulous allegations that Mr. Anderson had misused board funds and acted inappropriately toward a woman on the board of directors of a local advocacy group.”

A union spokesperson confirmed that the local advocacy group was Never Again Colorado, a youth-led anti-gun violence group of which Anderson, 22, was president in 2018. Gould said the allegations were “not verifiable.” The union endorsed Anderson in 2019, and he won.

In a separate statement, Anderson confirmed Thursday that the union asked him during the 2019 campaign about his time with Never Again Colorado. He has since said some of his behavior as the group’s president was inappropriate. But Anderson has maintained that his behavior back then, or at any other time, did not include perpetrating sexual assault.

Anderson is currently the subject of a third-party investigation initiated by his fellow Denver school board members into allegations of sexual misconduct that surfaced this spring. The board said Thursday it expects findings from the investigation by the end of the summer. The district has spent more than $50,000 on the investigation so far, the board said.

The most serious allegations have been anonymous and secondhand.

In March, the local civil rights group Black Lives Matter 5280 said a woman who wished to remain anonymous told them Anderson sexually assaulted her.

In April, anonymous former members of Never Again Colorado wrote a letter alleging Anderson had made lewd comments and dared them to perform “sexualized actions,” among other things.

In May, a Denver activist said dozens of young women had come to her seeking protection from a specific man. The school board later said that those allegations were about Anderson.

And this week, Radhika Nath, who also ran for school board in 2019, said the teachers union asked her to switch from her race into Anderson’s at-large race because they were worried an allegation of sexual assault would be made public and knock him out of contention.

DENVER & STATE

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2021-06-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-14T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281625308250285

The Gazette, Colorado Springs