What I stand for

Safety:
My main goal is that we never have another situation like what happened with Tyler Zanella.

I promise to support:

-A district culture that promotes respect of staff, students, and diversity

-A district culture that respects the legal protections of whistleblowers and the legal requirements of mandated reporters

-Staff wages that allow us to hire and retain compassionate staff

-Training programs and support departments that help staff help students

Compassion for families:

Following the arrest of Tyler Zanella, my family and the others felt abandoned, ignored, and swept under the rug. We developed a deep distrust of the Board, which was only encouraged by statements from district leadership.

Unfortunately, other families in the district have since come forward with new stories of child abuse by other staff, and report similar feelings of abandonment and distrust.

I promise to:

-Show compassion to families who suspect their children have been mistreated

-Ensure a district policy that protects children from abuse

-Ensure a district policy that balances a parent’s need for closure with confidentiality requirements

Advocacy:

I am a loud and proud advocate for equity who isn’t afraid to speak out in the face of injustice.

While living in Fort Collins, I have attended and helped organize protests for:

-LGBTQ+ rights (including a drag queen story hour in Old Town Square to protest anti trans and anti drag laws- yes, I am that kind of sassy!)

-Disability rights

-BIPOC rights

-Our unhoused neighbors’ rights

-Women’s rights

I promise to continue to advocate for the human rights of staff, students, and parents.

Bullying:

At an April 2025 listening session, a parent expressed that in their experience, PSD’s management of bullying has been ineffective. Brian Kingsley explained that the district is seeking new ways to prevent and respond to bullying.

I promise to support new solutions to:

-prevent bullying

-redirect bullies to healthy behaviors and mindsets

-help victims of bullying recover and feel safe

Common sense policy review:

Tyler Zanella’s abuse of my daughter and 10 other students resulted in an audit of transportation. The auditors recommended the following changes to the transportation department:

-Create an SOP for training new hires

-Document accidents

-Develop an SOP for footage storage and access

-Revise transportation manual to align with district policy.

People just assume PSD is handling things like policy review appropriately, but this demonstrates how off the mark PSD’s practices are. Some of their policies have gone a decade or more without review, and now we’ve seen what can result: mass abuse of disabled children.

I promise to advocate for common sense policies and practices that will promote a safe environment for students and staff.

Helping staff Help students:

A school district’s primary job is to educate children. We can’t do that without its staff.

We must help staff help students.

I promise to:

-Advocate for increased state and federal funding of schools

-Support competitive pay for staff

-Support competitive benefits programs for staff

-Support proper on the job training of staff

-Support programs that prevent staff burnout

-Support new technologies that will assist staff and students

-Seek out and advocate for novel solutions

-Support staff who advocate for their own needs

Transparency:

The 2023 board passed a resolution asking CASB to lobby for increased timeframes and fees for CORA requests.

When directly asked about it, our current board president (then VP) claimed they needed to keep “homophobes” from causing problems.

Transparency that excludes those we disagree with is not transparency.

Transparency behind a paywall is not transparency

I promise to:

-Advocate for respect and equal treatment of those who disagree with me

-Advocate for solutions that provide paywall free information to the public

Equal Education Opportunity:

The current political climate has many people questioning what is going to happen to public education.

In some other states, parents report their districts are forcing them to choose between their child’s IEP or expulsion.

I promise to support Free Appropriate Public Education for all students whether the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act remains in place or not.

Protecting Whistleblowers:

Protecting whistleblowers and respecting mandatory reporter status is one of those things so basic, voters probably just assume PSD is doing it. Sadly, this is not the case.

-An advocate friend was told by staff that they don’t want to collaborate on her child’s IEP because when they fail FAPE standards, she reports them to the BoE and regulatory agencies. That staff member was allowed to retire at their leisure.

-I have witnessed a staff member refer to giving critical public comment as “intimidating.”

-Staff members have anonymously reported to me that when they tried to report Tyler Zanella’s child abuse, they faced retaliation and racism.

There are many more examples besides these of PSD failing to do the bare minimum.

Protections for whistleblowers are both legally required and critical to a safe and healthy work environment.

I promise to promote policy and a workplace culture that respects legal protections for whistleblowers, and proactively prevents behaviors that would require whistleblowing.