Protesters pack meeting on education changes

GOLDEN, Colo. -- Students and teachers fighting a plan to promote patriotism and downplay civil disobedience in some suburban Denver U.S. history courses packed a school board meeting Thursday where the controversial changes could face a vote.

Turnout was so high that the teachers union streamed video from the meeting room — which holds a couple hundred people — onto a big screen in the parking lot outside.

About 300 students, parents and teachers opposed to the proposal rallied in the parking lot and marched along nearby streets before the meeting.

Carole Morenz, holding a small American flag and a sign that said “History matters. Know the truth,” traveled from Pueblo because she said she’s worried the change in approach to teaching history could be the “biggest cultural shift of our lifetime.”

“They will lose the knowledge of what made America great,” said Morenz, adding that she has been concerned about problems in education since she began homeschooling her children in the 1980s.

Dozens of students took the podium, with just a minute each to speak. They delivered 40,000 signatures they say they gathered from around the country in support.

Students in a majority of the 17 high schools in Colorado’s second-largest school district have left classes in droves over the past few weeks, waving signs and flags in protests organized by word of mouth and social media.