A recent article, “Behind Closed Doors: Leaked Memos Reveal How Durango 9-R Schools Avoided a DEI Lawsuit, Until Now,” (Rocky Mountain Voice, Jul. 15) details serious federal civil rights complaints filed against Durango School District 9-R by the Mountain States Legal Foundation. These complaints allege racially preferential hiring practices, exclusionary race-based committees and policies that may have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
According to the article, internal documents reveal that district legal counsel advised changes to hiring policy language to avoid lawsuits, while internal performance metrics appeared to tie evaluations to race-based hiring goals. After President Donald Trump’s executive order banning federal DEI preferences, the district quietly removed references to race in its hiring policies, but the complaints argue the practices persist.
This raises an important question: Where is The Durango Herald in reporting on this story? With three federal complaints now pending before the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the public deserves full transparency and local reporting, not just leaks to a statewide outlet.
I urge the Herald to investigate and report on these serious allegations, clarify the district’s current practices and inform the public on whether these concerns are being addressed or ignored.
Our community deserves answers not silence.
Ken Fusco, Sr.
Durango
