Elected officials and advocates, usually quick to comment on sexual harassment allegations, so far have little to say about Tay Anderson, the school board member in Denver. Sexual assault allegations against him were found to be unproven but it was determined he made “unbecoming” comments to minors. Some parents, however, were vocal in condemning Anderson’s actions, and called for his removal.
Anderson faced a censure vote by the Denver Public Schools Board on Friday and tweeted Thursday night he had received “official confirmation” he will be censured.
On the eve of the Denver Public Schools board’s vote on a censure motion at 1 p.m. Friday, board member Tay Anderson refused to answer questions and set the stage for an angry, defiant defense.
According to a DPS spokesman, that is the extent of the punishment the board can dole out, even if the Investigations Law Group had corroborated allegations in all five of the areas its investigators probed.
“Director Anderson is a publicly elected official who answers to the voters,” said DPS spokesman Will Jones after confirming with the agency’s legal counsel. “The Board does not have the authority to remove him from office.”
Jones added voters did have that power though and a recall election was possible.
“A recall is a voter initiated process. It is up to the voters to decide who will represent them on the Board of Education,” he said.
While an independent investigation for Denver Public Schools was unable to substantiate sexual assault allegations against Tay Anderson, one of its members, the details of the report released Wednesday confirmed what appear to be incidents of sexual harassment against teens by Anderson. Here is Colorado Politics’ analysis of the 96-page report from ILG Legal Services.
Colorado Politics reached out to a dozen organizations and women’s rights leaders, all of whom would only speak off the record.
They admitted being apprehensive to confront Anderson and his allies, including some in the Democratic Party, who have said the 23-year-old elected official is being targeted because he is a fast riser in politics but, more, a young Black man.
Such accusations are Kryptonite to advocates championing reform, especially at a time when race is a central issue across the country with reforms championed by Democrats in Colorado and across the nation.
The most serious claims against Anderson, that he sexually assaulted women, could not be corroborated, according to an independent investigation that the board will discuss Friday afternoon as it considers whether to censure Anderson.
“The reason they’re not substantiated,” one Democrat who is keeping quiet publicly told Colorado Politics, “is because the intimidation is substantiated.”
Several people who declined to speak on the record, fearing political retribution or the potential impact of their future requests before governing bodies that include Anderson’s allies, pointed to a widely televised March press conference that made it clear that race would be a central issue in Anderson’s defense.
“I am the son of a single mother who is a survivor of sexual assault,” Anderson said in the beginning of his remarks, “and (in) a family that knows what it’s like to be Black in America.”
He said when he ran for school board “I wanted to uplift the community not tear it apart.” Anderson wept as he spoke about his then soon-to-be-born child. “I want my son to be able to look up to his dad, not be ashamed of him” said Anderson, who is midway through his four-year term. “Our community deserves leaders they can trust.”
Anderson and his supporters have spoken publicly in other venues about the role they believed his race played in the allegations.
Democratic activist and Anderson supporter Hashim Coates told Colorado Politics Thursday that the allegations were “a set up and a farce from the beginning,” calling one of Anderson’s critics “a tool or instrument of white supremacy.”
He said of the investigation, “It was a waste of taxpayer money. There’s nothing that report discovered that we did not already know.”
Brother Jeff Fard, another influential voice in the Denver’s Black community and the namesake of Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center in Five Points, stood with embattled school board member.
“Tomorrow, the Denver Public Schools board is going to do what they intended to do anyway,” Fard said Thursday evening. “They’re going to continue to tarnish that man’s reputation. I find that so hard to believe, but they’re going to do it.”
Fard said the case never amounted to sexual assault, but rather a young man communicating on social media.
“On face value, this doesn’t add up and it doesn’t take an investigation over this long period to realize that something was wrong with that story,” he said.
Investigators noted that Anderson sent flirtatious emails to a 16-year-old DPS and a 17-year-old from Douglas County, who told investigators she spurned his advances.
In 2018, Democrats in the state legislature led the push to remove one of their members, Rep. Steve Lebsock of Thornton, over alleged inappropriate remarks to lobbyists and Rep. Faith Winter of Westminster.
Winter did not return a text to her personal cell phone from Colorado Politics asking her to comment on what Anderson said to the teenagers on social media.
Parents contacted by Colorado Politics, however, were dissatisfied with the outcome before the meeting.
Jeanna Hoch, the parent of a 16-year-old, 7-year-old. and a toddler, said her middle child was being homeschooled this year “due to my absolute disgust with DPS policies.”
Her oldest wanted to graduate with his class.
“Censure is not strong enough,” Hoch said. “Anderson needs to resign. He’s long been a sexist who ignores the upset caused by men and boys in spaces intended for women and girls. He calls those of us who fight for the rights we once had the most despicable names.”
Hoch, a Democrat, cited instances of intimidation over her criticism of Anderson, singling out Coates, after she wrote a critical blog in March.
“Anderson personally attacked my family and posted pics of my children to his (Instagram account),” she said. “He was the final straw as to why I no longer vote blue.
She added, “I don’t need another reason, or proof of a heinous crime, to know he doesn’t belong on a school board or in any position of authority over children, for that matter.”
Gerad Smith said he has enrolled his child in a Catholic school because he had lost faith in Denver Public Schools because of Anderson, even before the sexual misconduct allegations surfaced.
“My lack of faith was largely due to Anderson’s bullying of parents at school board meetings, and the rest of the board’s demonstrated cowardice in not publicly condemning his behavior,” Smith said. “You couple Anderson’s cavalier behavior with gutless peers on the board, and see that all in the context of a district with horrifyingly low academic achievement, and you just give up on the district wholesale. DPS can rot, right alongside Anderson’s political ambitions.”
Ann Shiveley, another parent, did not expect Anderson to be held to “the highest standard” of conduct, and they wouldn’t right that with a “weak-tea censure.”
“I saw firsthand what Tay Anderson did to bully, harass, and intimidate a DPS parent last spring,” she recounted. “He’s unfit to represent DPS parents and many parents have expressed their concern at school board meetings about his fitness to represent children ever since the investigation started.”
Another parent, Jennifer Smith, said she hoped that peace could be restored and the board could get back to doing the work they were elected to do.
“I wasn’t there. I don’t know what he did, other than use bad judgment talking to young girls,” she said. “I know this, though, our children shouldn’t be caught up in the Tay Anderson tornado. He’s been a me-me-me controversy on the board since he got there. I knew he needed to go way before I knew anything the report told me.”
