Colorado dad accuses school officials of retaliating against daughter after "embarrassing" viral video
A seventh grader in Colorado is facing disciplinary action after a video she shot at recess went viral.
"My daughter's so scared for by what she is witnessing, that she begins to record this video," said Aaron Frost, whose 12-year-old daughter shot the video.
The video shows a group of students at Monarch PK-8 School in Louisville standing in a circle around a classmate on the ground.
"Who is very clearly convulsing, twitching, writhing," he said.
He says she was scared when the students began chanting, "sacrifice!" and "heil Satan!"
"Is that for real? Is it for fun? Is it just a joke? No matter what it is, it's terrifying and shouldn't happen," he said.
What happened next shocked him even more.
"I go to pick up my daughter, she has been pulled back into an interrogation with five district employees… all of whom are questioning her without me being present," he said. "She comes out of that meeting in tears."
He says the principal is now threatening disciplinary action against his daughter for violating school policy by using her cell phone on campus, something her dad notes other students do every day.
They just don't capture the kind of footage his daughter did, and their videos don't get a hundred thousand views in a couple of days.
He says school officials are punishing his daughter because she exposed conduct that embarrassed them.
"Never approached her about being OK, never showed any type of empathy, never any concern for what she just had witnessed," he said.
Frost has hired an attorney who fired off a letter to Boulder Valley School District warning against "selective enforcement of its cell phone policies."
In a written statement James Kerwin, senior counsel at Mountain States Legal Foundation said:
"Students regularly film videos on school property for posting on TikTok and other social media platforms without any serious effort by the school to prevent such recordings. And it would pose serious constitutional issues if the school were to impose penalties for (the 7th grader's) technical violations that are disproportionate to the penalties (if any) imposed on other students for their breaches of Policy. In short, however upset school officials may be due to the unwanted attention created by a viral social media event, as you know, school officials must treat student conduct consistent with the First Amendment and the Constitution more broadly."
Frost says his daughter is traumatized and still hasn't returned to school.
"I think at a minimum, they need to have a public and written apology to our daughter, coming from the administration and I'd say they need to be trained," he said.
In addition to an apology, he wants a policy that prevents school officials from grilling students without their parents.
He says they questioned other students too and even pulled security footage, going to great lengths to figure out who shot the video.
The 12-year-old isn't the one who posted it online. Frost says his wife shared it with a friend who put it on social media.
Boulder Valley School District released a statement saying:
"The Boulder Valley School District is committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment for all students. Monarch PK-8 investigated the incident captured on video and shared on social media and found no evidence of bullying or harassment. We always encourage students who have a concern to connect with a trusted adult or to make a complaint using the reporting options available on our website."
