By Caroline McDaniel and Ashley Havenner

Some school members and parents have accused a majority of the Jefferson County teachers of forcing their opinions on to the students. Here at Wheat Ridge, teachers have a very strong belief in not voicing their opinions to any student or colleague.

Multiple protests have been happening around the county and many parents and other students have been falsely accusing teachers of being responsible for these protests. As students who spend large amounts of time with teachers in the classroom, The Haystack staff felt the need to clarify what was actually being said by our teachers throughout different departments of the school.

In order to clarify that teachers were not influencing their students’ opinions on these recent proposals, we interviewed four separate teachers, some who seemed reluctant to even answer questions about this issue.

“When students are asking you about the issue, how are you presenting the information they are asking for?”

“I am doing the best that I can to give them as many factual points about the situation,” said Tammy Mckenzie, “so that they can then take those facts and go figure out how they feel about the issue.”

Social study teacher, Polly Furay, and English teacher Alison Murphy, and a source choosing to stay anonymous gave similar responses.

When asked what the consequences would be with sharing personal opinions with students,  Furay, stated, “I might get a little reprimand. I might get someone upstairs talking to me, kind of telling me, ‘Leave it to the students’.”

Mckenzie also responded with, “I think the worse consequence is the public feeling that we are imparting our views on students and trying to get them to feel the same way.”

When asked if the teachers personally believe they are in anyway forcing their opinions upon their students Mckenzie responded with, “I do not. The teachers that I have talked to have been actually very adamant about letting the students decide for themselves.” Furay agreed.

School board president Ken Witt stated to 9news reporter Nelson Garcia, “I’m all for the dialogue. I’m glad to see the engagement, but I very much am anxious to see it not impact our classroom.” Witt then continued, “They’ve pivoted and now they’ve stirred up some unrest among our students with a lot of misinformation, that kind of use of the classroom and our students to achieve other ends is inexcusable.” Assumptions such as this one from our school board president need to be put to an abrupt stop.

To prove the point that they are not manipulating the views of students, the teachers have repeatedly told us they refuse to voice their opinion on the issue for fears of these accusations becoming a reality and the consequences also becoming a lurid truth. Students have been given many opportunities to form their own opinion on the issue, whether or not they chose to do so is their choice. The teachers have not voiced their opinions.