June 17, 2021
Since March, sexual harassment allegations have been swirling around Denver School Board Member and local activist, Tay Anderson. Tay is an active member of the Denver protest scene and has been involved in many protests. The most serious allegations against him were made from within BLM 5280 and an activist woman who goes by the name Protest Mom.
Here's the quick breakdown as it relates to Tay Anderson. We won't cover this in too much detail, but the intersection of different stories do find a nexus in the protest scene.
Tay Anderson is an elected member of the Denver School Board. He has enjoyed a certain amount of popularity among DPS students and others until these recent controversies. He's also a leader around the BLM protest movement in Denver. He's led numerous marches and while I only saw him a few times in all the marches I went to, he was quite vocal on Twitter and drew lots of criticism from right wing operators who objected to his manner of politics. He has had personal information shared publicly and there is absolutely no shortage of hate on Twitter about Tay Anderson.
The whole mess is summarized here: https://www.westword.com/news/tay-anderson-abuse-claims-update-11983390
The highlights:
Westword says, leaders in BLM 5280 came out with allegations that Tay Anderson had sexually assaulted a woman in the organization. The Denver School board appears to be investigating these charges.
And then six women from an organization called Never Again Colorado say that in 2018 when he ran the organization (so he was 18-19 years old) and created an unsafe work environment. One might not be totally surprised that an organization run by a 19 year old might step over the boundaries into a place that might be easy to perceive as a hostile environment. Not an excuse, but a possible explanation.
Tay Anderson denied all of this.
On May 26, MK Brooks Fleming aka The Protest Mom - put in testimony to the Colorado State House Judiciary Committee that she had been contacted by 62 individuals who were all protected under DACA (thus making them unlikely to report any misdeeds) with allegations of sexual harassment and assault. All but one of the 62 were current DPS students. She never mentioned Tay Anderson's name. Here's a link to the testimony.
Protest Mom is a real person who supports protest participants by being their phone call lifeline. She does not attend the protest, but will keep track of you from her locale. "Text me when you get to your car" - "text me when you get home" - stuff like that. She provides advice on how to deal with cops, use of phones and other safety/evasion measures.
The Protest Mom allegations were explosive but in many ways, not very credible, even as she spoke them. The first indication of this was that she never mentions Tay Anderson by name, perhaps trying to avoid the implications of libel. All of the victims are anonymous and hiding in fear since they are said the be DACA Dreamers.
Tay denies the allegations that don't mention his name.
Then Tay "steps back" from his unpaid school board duties pending the outcome of the investigation.
On June 10, there is a protest announced by a group led by a DPS student who had just graduated. They were calling out Tay for the Protest Mom allegations (the one's that didn't mention his name).
The rally at the City & County Building was quite small.
DPS Office of Communications was there to set the
record straight about what DPS was doing on this matter.
The organizer had hoped a large crowd would attend - most of them students - but this never materialized. There were 30 people or so. Hardly any students. What did materialize was the PR Office for DPS that set up a table with a banner and a position statement about Tay Anderson and a commitment to waiting until the investigation ends.
There was an eclectic collection of people in attendance that included a local conservative radio talk show host who spoke and a middle aged woman from El Paso county who very much gave off the air of being a conservative activist sort. She also spoke and talked about her own experience with sexual assault when she was younger. She was up front about her dislike for Tay Anderson.
It was hard not to think that this event was an anti-Tay Anderson gathering put together by people who just don't like how he rolls. Grabbing onto the allegations to amplify them because they don't like his protest politics. He has many detractors. Were they piling on here? I have no idea, but it looked like that was very likely.
The student organizers told stories about sexual assaults that have happened at DPS in and around school - mostly by other students. This is an actual thing. It happens and how DPS has responded has been questioned by many. This is what I heard them talking about - not Tay Anderson. The core of their issue seemed less to do with Tay and more to do with what happens in DPS today. The fact that the Board Member was accused of sexual assault was being used to bring attention to the plight of the students who have been victimized at school.
UPDATE September 29, 2021 - Release the Investigation!
The long awaited DPS investigation into Tay Anderson was released.
A copy of the 96 page report can be found here.
The primary take aways:
The most severe allegations against Tay were "unsubstantiated" - this includes the Protest Mom charges that 62 students were assaulted as well as the assault allegation from the BLM 5280 member. (it appears Protest Mom might have been behind that one as well)
The investigation breaks down all of the allegations quite well and lays of out a clear explanation about why they did not find the allegations to be credible.
There also seemed to be some flirtatious text messaging back and forth between Tay and a 16-year old student - the communications was stopped by Tay when he learned he was texting with a minor. Much of this interaction is redacted in the public version of the report.
The Denver School Board voted to censure Tay Anderson for acts unbecoming of a board member for 1) the inappropriate text messages with the minor, 2) for posting a potentially bullying meme of Bugs Bunny on social media and 3) for his behavior during his tenure at Never Again Colorado.
Denver public schools students staged a student walkout to protest Tay Anderson on September 20.
That evening, Tay Anderson held a press conference where he thanks his supporters, re-affirmed his innocence and pledged to continue his term as a school board director for the remaining 2 years of his term.
According to the DPS investigation, there is no evidence Tay Anderson sexually assaulted anyone. The censure was a slap on the hands and for stupid but not criminal behavior.
Given the content of the investigation, one wonders what exactly
these teachers were hearing.
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