CEC Fort Collins High School students stage walkout to protest principal's firing

About 90 students walked out of classes Thursday at Colorado Early Colleges Fort Collins High School to protest the recent firing of principal Collin Turbert.

Turbert was fired last week, along with CEC Fort Collins Middle School principal Jeb Holt, for violations of the Colorado Early Colleges employee code of conduct, the school’s chief executive administrator wrote in letters emailed Feb. 22 to staff and parents of students at both schools. As CEC’s head of school for Fort Collins, Turbert was Holt’s supervisor.

Led by junior Eilee Vichosky, the students walked out the front doors of the school in south Fort Collins to a small piece of undeveloped land behind Kruse Elementary School across the street and took turns with a megaphone to express their support for Turbert while also calling for the resignation of CEC Chief Executive Administrator Sandi Brown.

A handful of CEC middle schoolers joined the protest and spoke, but none referenced Holt in their statements.

“Step down, Sandi Brown,” they chanted between the testimonials. Signs were distributed that showed support for Turbert, called for Brown’s removal and pointed out that CEC is a public charter school and not a private school.

“My two objectives of this are to get Sandi Brown to step down from her CEA position because I feel like she has abused it for years now,” Vichosky told the Coloradoan. “And I feel like a second objective is I want there to be a formal apology released to Mr. Turbert because I do feel like his reputation has been damaged by this without proper justification and reasoning. I think the intentionally vague information being released and the intentionally harmful insinuations being made are hurting his reputation. Releasing an apology could help repair that some.”

Turbert has declined comment in emails to the Coloradoan.

Brown stood in the background, along with Larry Mohr, the Fort Collins/Windsor representative on the CEC governing board, for the first hour of the walkout before heading back into the school. She did not acknowledge students’ offers to come forward and speak to them as a group.

Students were told by two staff members who were making sure they stayed off private property and public streets that they were free to come and go from the school to leave or join the protest throughout the day, and many went back inside after about 90 minutes. Others, though, were coming back to rejoin the group just before noon.

Brown said she was “proud” of the students for exercising their right to peacefully protest the principal’s dismissal and that there would be no repercussions against those who participated.

“It’s understandable, because they don’t know the details,” Brown said. “We are a school that really tries to protect the dignity of everyone. I try to give the least amount of information. It’s one thing to be terminated; it’s another to have your name drug through the mud. I really try hard not to do that with our staff.”

A letter from Brown that was emailed to parents and staff Wednesday noted that she was aware of the planned walkout, supported students’ “right to speak out peacefully on matters that concern them” and that she would be on campus to “support our students, staff and community during this time of transition.”

It went on to note that CEC, as a general practice, “does not share the specific details of complaints or investigations.” She did, though, offer some additional information.

“CEC has a legal obligation to hold all of its employees to certain standards and takes that obligation very seriously. This practice ensures a healthy school climate and culture. If any employee, especially an employee in a leadership position, violates the legal rights of another employee, CEC must act accordingly. Regarding Mr. Turbert, CEC followed the required course for employee complaint investigations. The investigation found several substantiated accounts of violations under the CEC Employee Code of Conduct, including violations of federally protected rights.”

Protesting students and Travis Mitchell, a parent of three CEC students who was watching, believe the firing of Turbert was politically motivated. Fourteen current staff members, three former staff members and two other parents, all speaking anonymously for fear of retribution, have also reached out to the Coloradoan since the firings to express their support for Turbert and belief that he was fired for political stances that didn’t align with Brown’s.

Student Sam Daniels said about half the students in his English class left in the middle of class to join the walkout. He told the crowd that he believes Turbert’s opposition to converting CEC to a “classical school,” with curriculum similar to Poudre School District charter schools Ridgeview Classical and Liberty Common, was behind his firing.

“I want to show justice for our principal who was wrongly fired for expressing his political beliefs privately, if you could even call them political beliefs. So, I think it’s great that students are standing up for what they believe and seeking justice,” Daniels said.

Another student, Jackson Singleton, estimated that about half the students who were in school Thursday morning participated in the protest.

“It makes me feel really good,” said Vichosky, president of the school’s Gay Straight Alliance, vice president of its Key Club and a member of the National Honor Society. “One of my biggest fears while planning this walkout was that only five people would show up and it would fall through.”

Some students were opposed to the walkout or hesitant to participate because they did not have enough information, she said. Staff members, she said, were “very supportive” but afraid they would be disciplined or fired for participating.

A communication from Brown to staff Thursday morning and shared with the Coloradoan read: “Staff are expected to be in their classes with their students according to their teaching schedule but may exercise their right to speak out peacefully if they have a period not assigned to being with students or other obligations pertaining to their job.”

It went on to note: “Staff should not speak to media.”

CEC teachers and staff are “at-will” employees without the same legal protections as licensed teachers working at schools in public school districts.

CEC’s charter to operate as a public school in Colorado is issued through the authority of the Charter School Institute, not a specific school district, a Colorado Department of Education spokesperson said. CEC operates 10 schools in the state, including the two in Fort Collins and a combined middle-high school in Windsor.

Brown reiterated that the actions that led to Turbert’s firing involved interactions with staff, not students, and that it was not related to a U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights complaint filed against CEC last spring.

Sara Neel, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, confirmed that there was no connection to the case she was involved with at the school last spring regarding concerns raised by the school’s Gay Straight Alliance.

Brown said there was “a lot of good” Turbert brought to CEC. “But there’s also things that these kids will never know about, and that’s unfortunate. Mr. Turbert was with me from tutor to head of school, and it breaks my heart, as well.

“No one wants to terminate mid-semester. That is not good for anybody involved, correct? So, when you do something like this, it’s for very good reasons.”

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado Early Colleges students walk out over principal's firing