WEEK OF FEBRUARY 13, 2025
VOLUME 23 | ISSUE 10
FREE
Elizabeth district fights suit from ACLU BY NICKY QUINBY SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Pochie,13, stands in the middle of the Legend High School gymnasium as the school celebrates its 15th year granting wishes to kids like Pochie.
PHOTO BY HALEY LENA
Legend High School in Parker celebrates 15 years of granting wishes Students raise thousands of dollars for Make-A-Wish Colorado BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
As blue rally towels swung back and forth in the air, a crowd of hundreds of students erupted with cheers when 13-year-old Pochie ran out into the middle of Legend High School’s gymnasium, marking the end of the school’s 15th Wish Week. “It was really cool,” Pochie said.
Pochie was joined by his parents and older brother, who is a freshman at the school. And within a week, Parker’s Legend community helped make his wish to go to France come true. Pohie was born with a rare disease that leads to liver damage. Due to this disease, Pochie has been the recipient of a liver transplant. Over the years, he has joined his mother, Melaine, in bringing
VOICES: 10 | LIFE: 14 | CALENDAR: 17 | PUZZLES: 18
awareness to how organ and tissue donations can save lives. Tears came to Melaine’s eyes as she stood in front of the students and recalled the memories of watching her son — who is described as an “easy-going kid” — be in pain, as well as inand-out of hospitals to undergo multiple procedures. “It’s Make-A-Wish that provides special memories … during times of hardship, your
The Elizabeth School District has filed its formal response to a recent federal lawsuit and request for preliminary injunction from the ACLU of Colorado, concerning the district’s suspension of 19 books from school libraries. The injunction, filed Dec. 20, asks that the removed books be returned to ESD libraries and would stop the school board from continuing to remove books. The school district’s response, “Defendant’s Opposition to the Preliminary Injunction,” was filed on Jan. 27 in U.S. District Court in Denver. The district’s filing gives an explanation of its rationale in the Library Protocols and Book Lists and argues that the plaintiffs who sued in December do not make a convincing argument for granting the injunction. The document explains that in the fall of 2023, Elizabeth School Board director Mike Calahan reported that his daughter, a middle school student in ESD, checked out a book from her school library recommended for readers aged 14 and over which contained profanity and sexual content. Because of this incident, the board identified a “significant disconnect” between curricular goals and library materials. The board asked the district’s Curriculum Review Committee to review the library collection and form a policy to “address student access to potentially controversial library content.” This resulted in the new Library Protocols, Sensitive Topics List, and a list of 19 suspended books, which was approved by the board on Aug. 12, 2024. The district subsequently asked the community to review the suspended titles by visiting district offices SEE ACLU, P7
donations allow us to have memories that we can reflect on when times are hard and helps give us motivation to continue,” Melaine said. Wish Week is part of MakeA-Wish Colorado’s student-led program, Kids For Wish Kids, that enables students to fundraise to grant wishes for Colorado children with critical illSEE MAKE-A-WISH, P12
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