Safe Space

The dramatic exit of the superintendent and changes to school equity policies is cause for concern for Naomi Lopez, a speech therapist in Colorado Springs School District 11. Lopez works with children in special education who require services from the equity department. Without the equity leadership team overseeing the work, she fears her students will miss vital resources that assist in their academic goals. Naomi’s problems grew when two board members expressed transphobic messages on social media, and she feared for the safety of her gender fluid child. We follow Naomi Lopez as she tries to steer the board toward equity policies while addressing her concerns that her gender-fluid child is a target because of the school board's anti-LGBTQ comments. Host and producer: Jo Erickson Editor: Erin Jones Producers: Rebekah Romberg, Kibwe Cooper, Emily Williams Theme music by Daniel Mescher. (Additional music via Universal Production Music.) Art: Maria Juliana Pinzón Executive producers: Brad Turner, Kevin Dale Additional editorial support: Jenny Brundin, Rachel Estabrook, Sherkiya Wedgeworth-Hollowell, Luis Antonio Perez Thanks also to Jodi Gersh, Clara Shelton, Mia Rincón, Arielle Wilson, Hart van Denburg.

You can listen to Safe Space online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Safe Space is an episode from Systemic by Colorado Public Radio.

This episode is 42:59 long.

This episode was published on Jan 17, 2023.

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