BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter. com
“Sweep something under the carpet: to conceal (something, especially a problem) in the hope that it will be overlooked by others.” It’s a phrase that the Los Alamos Reporter has heard used in connection with Los Alamos Public Schools in her role as a parent, a staff member, a community member, and a reporter during almost 20 years of living in Los Alamos. While the many accomplishments of students and staff are well-publicized and appreciated by the community, news of struggles within the district concerning racial equity and inclusivity issues is often kept under wraps leading to rumors and speculation in the community.
A lawsuit filed by Luckie Daniels on November 27 in First Judicial District Court alleges multiple incidents of discrimination and race bias she and her daughter Jaiya Daniels have experienced with Los Alamos Public Schools during the past 16 months. Named in the lawsuit are Supt. Jennifer Guy, Asst. Supt. J. Carter Payne and School Board members Antonio Jaurigue, Ellen Specter, Melanie Colgan, Sondra Wyman, and former Board member Christine Bernstein.
Daniels, who is African American, is an experienced Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging (DEIAB) Strategist, who in the fall of 2022 when her daughter joined the Los Alamos High School student population, sought information on the work of the LAPS Equity Council from then superintendent Jose Delfin. That was the beginning of a long and daunting process of seeking answers that brought more questions at every juncture for Daniels.
Daniels was offered a contract as a DEIAB Consultant for LAPS in January 2023 by Supt. Jennifer Guy who took over the top spot following the departure of Delfin. At the time Daniels was engaged by LAPS, she presented a lengthy proposal of equity work (https://beluckiedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/consultant-luckie-daniels-2023-laps-deiab-proposal–1.pdf) she would do for the District under her contract but claims that she was denied access to the Equity Council meetings and members as well as staff members who were also working on equity issues. In May 2023, Daniels stopped working on equity for LAPS. Since then, she has filed complaints with LAPS, PED, and the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. The School Board at Daniels’s request hired an attorney, Treesineu McDaniel, to conduct an independent investigation into Daniels’ allegations. Once completed, McDaniel’s report will be given to LAPS and Luckie Daniels.
Even though the report has not been issued, LAPS has publicly denied all the allegations in Daniels’s complaint without addressing any of them. Daniels’ requests for an agenda item have been denied by the Board president and she has been limited to two minutes of comments in person and directed to submit her remaining comments in writing. Records requested under the state Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) have not been fulfilled in a timely manner and/or have been incomplete, resulting in conversations with and complaints to the State Attorney General’s Office.
Daniels waited a whole year for a response from the Public Education Department regarding multiple emails submitted to the Anti-Racism Anti-Oppression Division (ARAO) portal containing allegations against LAPS. When she attempted to track down her complaints, she was told they were not in the system, but Daniels was informed by a PED staff member that there was a folder of “cataloged” documents with Daniels’s name on it in the office. Daniels said that though cataloged, none of her complaints from 2022-2023 appear to have been internally addressed by PED and that she received no follow-up to any discrimination complaint, or the official Office of Civil Rights (OCR) complaint filed in October 2023.
Daniels submitted another IPRA request, this time to PED, and again the results were delayed and incomplete. Among documents not released to Daniels were emails to and from former LAPS superintendent Jose Delfin and then state Secretary of Education Kurt Steinhaus. The PED Records Custodian went as far as telling Daniels in an email that former PED employees’ emails are cleared off their computers to allow those computers to be assigned to new employees.
The incomplete IPRA documents released to Daniels revealed that former Supt. Delfin had in November 2022 requested assistance from Secretary Steinhaus following an incident involving Los Alamos Middle School football players chanting, “Go back to the res!” after a game against Santa Fe Indian School. The request resulted in an onsite “visit” to LAPS by Dr. Vickie Bannerman, (Deputy Secretary, Identity, Equity & Transformation), Simone Vann (Director of IET), Julia Rose Emslie (Director of Hispanic Education), and Alicia Bailey (At-Risk Funding & Innovation Coordinator).
An email from Deputy Sec. Rebecca Reyes to then Sec. Steinhaus December 12, 2022, asked for approval of a draft email she wanted to send to Supt. Guy. Some 15 pages of the draft email appear to have been completely redacted before the IPRA records were released. Reyes expressed concern that there had not yet been a follow-up to the November 18, 2022 visit to LAPS. She noted that she would like to discuss the visit and possible next steps with Steinhaus. The draft email reflected that Reyes had not been at the November 18 visit. It also reflected that Julie Dare, LAPS liaison for Native American Students & Families (NAPAC) was present at the follow-up meeting but had not been included in the invitations issued for the PED visit.
The notes taken by Reyes indicated that Interim Supt. Guy announced that Supt. Delfin would not be returning to LAPS and she was stepping up to be the superintendent moving forward. The notes state that Guy said leadership had little information about the purpose of the visit and there was a dynamic challenge with the leadership and the superintendent. The notes also indicate that Supt. Guy said students requested counseling services after PED’s visit and that there was staff fallout due to a lack of information, notification, and organization around the visit. Among the released records, in a December 12, 2022 email communication to Seana Flanagan (Managing Director), Reyes expressed concern that “Deputy Secretary went in and harmed these children with not making sure there were certain precautions put into place and not asking the Superintendent the right questions.”.
Following the redacted pages, the notes indicate that Julie Dare acknowledged racism in LAPS schools and had expressed concerns about the PED visit to Los Alamos Middle School including the fact that she was not notified about the visit to notify NAPAC. The notes indicate that Dare said from the beginning she had felt out of the loop as well as the families she represents, that she had developed a great relationship with the NAPAC families, that continuously no notice of the visit was made to parents and that there are 139 Native American students. Reyes noted that Dare had said there needed to be two days’ notice of a visit and that there needed to be a formal way to notify parents because Native American students can’t be brought into a meeting without their parents knowing.
LAPS Healthy Schools Director Kristine Coblentz spoke about resources LAPS could use, the notes said, and that she would love to provide resources to the community and families. She said resources specific to the region are hard to find. She discussed cultural considerations and sensitivities, that the students don’t have the background/experience and that needs to be kept in mind during sharing with students, the notes state. Students may not all feel safe to share with people they’ve never met. Coblentz said people setting up focus groups need to be thoughtful about how community norms are presented. She also noted that there was student fallout from the visit where students needed counseling support after PED’s visit. She said leadership was not part of Dr. Delfin’s vision, that they had been told not to prepare and this brought up re-trauma for students. The notes state that there was no provision for debriefing after the meeting to assist students the following Monday. The notes reflect that Coblentz wants students’ well-being at the center.
Why is all this relevant to Luckie Daniels’s allegations about LAPS? It appears that while she was engaged by LAPS as a DEIAB Strategist in January 2023, she was not made aware of the PED visit to the District or of any of the interactions with PED. Daniels alleges details regarding PED’s equity audit and proposed DEI recommendations were intentionally concealed during her January 23, 2023 kickoff meeting with Supt. Guy and Kristine Coblentz. She was also not made aware of the racial harassment complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights against LAPS or changes to the District’s 5130 Nondiscrimination policy and regulations LAPS agreed to make in a resolution agreement between LAPS and OCR. All of this information has taken months to obtain from IPRA requests to both the state and LAPS. It is unknown whether LAPS, during the completion of its OCR monitoring period, disclosed the Santa Fe Indian School incident to OCR and revealed details of the November 2022 PED visit, actions, and outcomes. It is also unknown if PED was aware of the LAPS and OCR resolution agreement or OCR monitoring concurrently happening at the time of their visit.
Many of the racial equity and discrimination issues identified by LAPS and PED leading up to and following the November 18, 2022 “audit” are reflected in allegations made by Daniels in her October discrimination complaints and Federal court-bound Civil Rights lawsuit.
A November 13, 2023, IPRA request by Daniels to LAPS requesting the release of records related to PED’s November 2022 onsite visit has been twice deferred (November 28, 2023, and December 22, 2023) and remains unfulfilled by the District’s Custodian of Records, J. Carter Payne, to date.
It leaves to question if a federal lawsuit against the District might have been prevented had the December 9, 2022 equity interventions recommended by PED, and strategic DEI measures proposed by Daniels on December 27, 2022, presented here, been implemented by LAPS.
How can LAPS continue to publicly deny all the allegations in Daniels’s complaint without addressing any of the grievances cited and why does the timely release of public records remain a challenge for Daniels today?
Editor’s note: Much of the information in this article is taken from public records obtained under the Inspection of Public Records Act.