Week of March 2, 2023
FREE
DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
LoneTreeVoice.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 24
Sammy Project encourages mental health discussion Art show at local libraries BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
In the aftermath of her son’s death, Whitney Yeager went back to her roots as a professional photographer to create an exhibit to honor her son and destigmatize mental health. Society often sees mental illness as something that needs to be hidden. People might think it’s a weakness or feel ashamed of it. Yeager aims to challenge the stigma around mental illness with her traveling exhibition, The Sammy Project. On April 3, 2021, Whitney’s son, Samuel - who Whitney calls Sammy - was shot and killed by Douglas County Police during a psychotic episode triggered by THC. “Losing my firstborn child, and only son, has been the greatest heartbreak of my life,” said Yeager. “There will never be a deeper pain to compare it to. At the same time, it has been the most transformative experience I’ve ever had.” To honor her son, Yeager began to destigmatize mental illness through personal portraits and stories. “People should feel comfortable being vulnerable,” said Yeager. “People should feel comfortable talking about depression or any kind of mental health struggle SEE HEALTH, P5
BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The two-member majority of Douglas County’s elected leaders has removed the third commissioner from several boards that oversee community organizations, a move she called “personal political retribution.” “For nearly two years now, (Abe) Laydon and (George) Teal have conspired and collaborated to silence my voice and prohibit me from executing my fiduciary duty to act in the interests of the resi-
Reading program at elementary school to expand Will go districtwide BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
or other roles, the newsletter argued. That’s Thomas’ area, largely made up of Highlands Ranch. Laydon, the commissioner for District I, or northeast Douglas County, said the concerns are “wildly inaccurate,” noting the commissioners are all elected at large. In Douglas County, the commissioners are required to reside in different districts, but voters throughout the entire county cast ballots for each seat. “Each of us represents the entire county, and each of us is intimately familiar through decades of living and working here with the needs of our local boards,” Laydon said.
Stone Mountain Elementary teacher Brooke Vincent said her third graders have become more confident and engaged with reading and writing over the past two years as the school has piloted a new literacy curriculum. With the program’s success, the writing program is now being implemented in elementary schools across the Douglas County School District. Vincent’s observations are backed by recent data from her school and two others that also piloted new literacy curricula that shows more students reading at or above grade level than in previous years. In 2022, 82% of Stone Mountain Elementary students were reading at or above grade level, which is up from 76% in 2019, before the pandemic and the implementation of the new curriculum named Wonders. Statewide, 2022 Colorado Measures of Academic Success scores show 41% of students met or exceeded grade level expectations. “(Wonders has) taken literacy from this is reading time and this is writing time to this is literacy time,” Vincent told Colorado Community Media. “It’s been helping (students) find their own love of reading too because they’re engaged in the text sets that we’re reading.” Similarly, Sage Canyon and Cherokee Trail elementaries piloted the Benchmark Workshop and Benchmark Advanced curricula, respectively, seeing improvements in students’ reading levels. In 2022, 67% of Sage Canyon students and 62% of Cherokee Trail students were reading at or above grade level, compared to 51% and 56% in 2019. “They came in from kindergarten came knowing things that we’ve never had first graders know before and that has sent us up for real success,” Sage Canyon Elementary first grade teacher Sara Lang told the Board of Education on Jan. 10. With the success at the pilots schools, the district is in the process of rolling out the new curricula to all of its elementary schools this year, as well as training teachers on the science of reading.
SEE COUNTY, P9
SEE READING, P6
Samuel and Whitney Yeager on a hike with their dog.
COURTESY OF WHITNEY YEAGER
Thomas removed from serving on county boards Teal, Laydon vote for removal
VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 2
dents of Douglas County, including the almost 129,000 voters who re-elected me in November 2020 by an 18-point margin,” Commissioner Lora Thomas wrote in a February newsletter. The removals come amid what Thomas called “constant personal attacks and antagonism, including being investigated twice with absolutely no findings of any wrongdoing,” she wrote in another recent newsletter. The changes in power raise issues for her ability to represent her area of Douglas County, the newsletter argued. County commissioner District III is the only district with a lack of city- or town-level elected officials to represent their interests, such as overseeing property development