October 22, 2025 • 10 mins
JEFFCO SCHOOLS VOTERS, PAY ATTENTION TODAY Because I've got Lindsay Datko from JeffCo Kids First on to talk about how her organization was alerted to the troubled past of one of the school board candidates that WAS backed by the teachers union. The union rescinded their endorsement but not until after calling JeffCo Kids First "extremists" for bringing up a sexual crime in a school board race.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Because the theme until the election is pay attention to
school board races. We continue with that, only we're jumping
over to Jefferson County, where one formerly endorsed by the
teachers' union candidate has lost that endorsement in part because
of the very delicate work of an organization called jeff
Co Kids First. And joining me now from that organization,
(00:23):
Lindsay Dadco, Hi, Lindsay, Hey, Mabby, I corrected the information
that you sent me. My blog is a disaster today,
just misspelling all over the place. It's been a nightmarriage
just getting it up and running. And I have no
one to blame about myself. But thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome back to me. Yeah, welcome back to the show.
First of all, thank you so much. Well, let's talk about.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The jeff Co school board race, but only in the
context of your organization, which has been really critical of
the current superintendent for a lot of very very good reasons.
I might add you have you came into possession of
some information about one of the candidates running for Jefferson
(01:06):
County school Board who had been endorsed by the.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Union, and I'd like you to I don't want to, I.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Just want to have you lay out what happened and
what has happened since then.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, Well, we heard directly from contacts of more than
one victim of this school board candidate named Michael Yoakum,
and we became very concerned knowing how direct these contacts were.
We actually listened to a recording at a board forum
(01:38):
where he admitted to a sexual offense as a juvenile
and a deferred adjudication, which means that someone has found
guilty or pleaded guilty as long as they and as
long as they meet certain rehabilitative steps, their actual sentence
is deferred for a few years and it can be
dismissed and those records can be seen. And so that
(02:02):
is what occurred here. There's actually Colorado state law that
provides avenues for records to be unsealed when someone seeks
public office, and we began a very direct and careful
process to alert the community of what the candidate himself
admitted to. The circumstances are tragic, The facts behind it
(02:23):
are extremely serious. This is not a Romeo and Juliet case,
a term that I've been people have been asking about
indicating was this an eighteen year old and a seventeen
year type thing. No, this was far more serious. It
would potentially present a major conflict for him to hold
public office, especially in a decision making role over over children.
(02:46):
And let me just mention too, I was notified that
a constituent, aware of the circumstances, quietly asked him to
step down on September thirtieth, and eight days after that,
we noticed this candidate still intended to continue running. We
launched a deliberate and.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Careful process, as we said, to alert the.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Public, alerted the campaign manager. The same constituent did, and
we noticed then that JCA, which is the Teasers Union,
withdrew their enforcement of him. So they must have also
seen the gravity of this situation.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, and what's interesting is they did not endorse him
until they took a shot at your organization for having
the temerity to actually point out that this person and
am I. I don't want to get into the details
of the case, and I'm assuming you know the details
of the case, But are these are sexual crimes that
involve children? Is that what we're talking about?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
That is what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Okay, I want to.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Be as clear as I can without being too clearly,
you know, So you're the problem for pointing out that
a school board candidate has this in his history.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
The first paragraph of their statement said that they failed. Basically,
it was a procedural error, so they were withdrawing. They
called it their recommendation, which was clearly watering down what
this is. This was an endorsement and a full funding.
We're talking potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on
(04:19):
their candidates, so to call it a recommendation, it was
definitely watering Matt down.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
But the second.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Paragraphs then called those who who brought this forward extremists,
and so they blamed their vetting process rather than the
unacceptable risk children. And we keep saying, if this makes
us a political extremist, just sign us up. Mandy Well,
I want.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
To play something for you, Lindsey, and I want to
play it for the audience as well. This is why
school boards matter. I just want you guys to listen
to this sound bite. This is why I'm talking about
school boards and this kind of nonsense that you're about
to hear from the Jefferson County Board of Education by
Aaron Kensworthy. You were going to this is the kind
of stuff that's happening in school districts all over the area,
(05:04):
So this is just indicative. This was the first board
meeting back after the Evergreen school shooting, when parents were
obviously extremely concerned and looking for answers about what the
district was going to do to ensure the safety of students.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
For one of the gentlemen, I wanted to say, safety
is actually a privilege. It is not a right, and
it cannot be guaranteed, which is incredibly hard for any
parent to say to their child, but it is true
in the culture and the time that we live in.
It's not just in schools. It is in movie theaters.
It's happening at grocery stores and in public parks and
(05:44):
also in schools. And so.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I wish that I.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Felt that I could walk through this world entitled to safety,
but I am not. And there are people in this
world who have never experienced a feeling of safety, may
not in their lifetime, and so to expect that we
can guarantee safety for ourselves and for our children is
an unfortunate untruth. It's we just cannot guarantee it. We
(06:14):
can do everything we can to support it. But I
wanted to say that because safety absolutely is a privilege.
Feeling safe is a privilege. And ultimately, I'm gonna end
with I'm very grateful for those folks who showed up
at public.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So safety is a privilege.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And in saying it like that, Lindsay she essentially takes
the onus off of the Jefferson County School Board of
really working to really do their best to achieve a
modicum of safety at a high level so kids can
feel comfortable going to school. Why would kids go to
school if there's no effort, because well, you know what,
we can't, we can't and nobody can guarantee safety. She's
absolutely right about that. And at first I was like, well,
(06:56):
maybe she's gonna say, you know, we can't expect one
hundred percent to guarantee safe, but then she went in
there are other people who never expect safety. This school
board is a clown show. And I'm not asking you
to do agree or disagree, but man, does this school
board need to be changed.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It really really needs to be changed.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And at least the good news is mister Yoakam has
lost the endorsement of the Jefferson County Education Association, But
that doesn't mean that they're not going to continue to
keep more people like this woman on the school board.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
What was the were you at that.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Meeting, Lindsay, You know I was listening. But Mandy, just
minutes before Evergreen parents who had children running for their lives,
in addition to John Custillo, who's the father of Kendrick Custeo,
the hero who died rushing the shooter at the s
school shooting, spoke to the board and poured their hearts out.
(07:49):
And this was her message as someone on a governing
board of education. And let's just say the quiet part
out loud. What she's doing here is equating safety and DEI.
She's saying that safety is an equitable an equitable issue,
and that is a catastrophic view. These two terms collide
(08:14):
so catastrophically. But we know that this is the case
in Jeffco because Evergreen High School was deprioritized and didn't
have an FRO assigned to them. And so she's basically
just reiterating what we've seen in Jeffco with a placement
of SROs and we can't have children safety as an
equitable issue.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Well, I need to say we played the audio, but
you guys didn't hear it because it was only in
one channel and it didn't go out on the radio.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Let me just tell you the audio.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
In this audio, the school board member said that safety
is a privilege, not a right, that the school district
cannot ensure the safety of every student, which is true.
But then she went on to kind of excuse it
as there are people in this world ever feel safe,
and applying somehow that it's ridiculous for white people to
expect to be safe when there are people who are
(09:06):
not in their same situation who are safe. Ever, it's
just the dumbest, stupidest line of claptrap I've ever heard.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Absolutely, and three TV news stations pick this up. It
just went wild amongst community members. Her most important duty,
it's a very unique duty of care, is to assume
the responsibility in schools, you assume the responsibility of the
parent for a child safety. It's called in local parentis.
She mentioned grocery stores and movie theaters. That is not
(09:37):
the same as institutions that watch over our children safety
for thirty hours a week. She is a jeff c
School's board member. It's unacceptable.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Amen to that, Lindsay.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I appreciate everything that you guys have done at jeff
co Kids first, And I've already told my listeners that
in my if I were in Jefferson County, I would
vote for Denise at Savaria, I would vote for Samuel Myrat,
and I would vote for Gloria Terry Gascone for the
school board and hopefully inject some common sense. I think
(10:10):
that the superintendent needs to be replaced immediately because jeff
Cooe Schools used to be a powerhouse and they're still good.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
They're still good, but if you look at what Cherry
Creek is allowed.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
To happen, you don't want that to happen to jeff
co Right, So those are my opinions, Lindsay, And I'm
not going to ask you to say anything because I
know your organization does not get involved in politics. You
merely inform people of things that happen, Lindsay, dat Coo,
I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Thank you so much, anytime, all right, have.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
A good one. So important school board races
Because the theme until the election is pay attention to
school board races. We continue with that, only we're jumping
over to Jefferson County, where one formerly endorsed by the
teachers' union candidate has lost that endorsement in part because
of the very delicate work of an organization called jeff
Co Kids First. And joining me now from that organization,
(00:23):
Lindsay Dadco, Hi, Lindsay, Hey, Mabby, I corrected the information
that you sent me. My blog is a disaster today,
just misspelling all over the place. It's been a nightmarriage
just getting it up and running. And I have no
one to blame about myself. But thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome back to me. Yeah, welcome back to the show.
First of all, thank you so much. Well, let's talk about.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
The jeff Co school board race, but only in the
context of your organization, which has been really critical of
the current superintendent for a lot of very very good reasons.
I might add you have you came into possession of
some information about one of the candidates running for Jefferson
(01:06):
County school Board who had been endorsed by the.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Union, and I'd like you to I don't want to, I.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Just want to have you lay out what happened and
what has happened since then.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, Well, we heard directly from contacts of more than
one victim of this school board candidate named Michael Yoakum,
and we became very concerned knowing how direct these contacts were.
We actually listened to a recording at a board forum
(01:38):
where he admitted to a sexual offense as a juvenile
and a deferred adjudication, which means that someone has found
guilty or pleaded guilty as long as they and as
long as they meet certain rehabilitative steps, their actual sentence
is deferred for a few years and it can be
dismissed and those records can be seen. And so that
(02:02):
is what occurred here. There's actually Colorado state law that
provides avenues for records to be unsealed when someone seeks
public office, and we began a very direct and careful
process to alert the community of what the candidate himself
admitted to. The circumstances are tragic, The facts behind it
(02:23):
are extremely serious. This is not a Romeo and Juliet case,
a term that I've been people have been asking about
indicating was this an eighteen year old and a seventeen
year type thing. No, this was far more serious. It
would potentially present a major conflict for him to hold
public office, especially in a decision making role over over children.
(02:46):
And let me just mention too, I was notified that
a constituent, aware of the circumstances, quietly asked him to
step down on September thirtieth, and eight days after that,
we noticed this candidate still intended to continue running. We
launched a deliberate and.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Careful process, as we said, to alert the.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Public, alerted the campaign manager. The same constituent did, and
we noticed then that JCA, which is the Teasers Union,
withdrew their enforcement of him. So they must have also
seen the gravity of this situation.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, and what's interesting is they did not endorse him
until they took a shot at your organization for having
the temerity to actually point out that this person and
am I. I don't want to get into the details
of the case, and I'm assuming you know the details
of the case, But are these are sexual crimes that
involve children? Is that what we're talking about?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
That is what we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Okay, I want to.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Be as clear as I can without being too clearly,
you know, So you're the problem for pointing out that
a school board candidate has this in his history.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
The first paragraph of their statement said that they failed. Basically,
it was a procedural error, so they were withdrawing. They
called it their recommendation, which was clearly watering down what
this is. This was an endorsement and a full funding.
We're talking potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on
(04:19):
their candidates, so to call it a recommendation, it was
definitely watering Matt down.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
But the second.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Paragraphs then called those who who brought this forward extremists,
and so they blamed their vetting process rather than the
unacceptable risk children. And we keep saying, if this makes
us a political extremist, just sign us up. Mandy Well,
I want.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
To play something for you, Lindsey, and I want to
play it for the audience as well. This is why
school boards matter. I just want you guys to listen
to this sound bite. This is why I'm talking about
school boards and this kind of nonsense that you're about
to hear from the Jefferson County Board of Education by
Aaron Kensworthy. You were going to this is the kind
of stuff that's happening in school districts all over the area,
(05:04):
So this is just indicative. This was the first board
meeting back after the Evergreen school shooting, when parents were
obviously extremely concerned and looking for answers about what the
district was going to do to ensure the safety of students.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
For one of the gentlemen, I wanted to say, safety
is actually a privilege. It is not a right, and
it cannot be guaranteed, which is incredibly hard for any
parent to say to their child, but it is true
in the culture and the time that we live in.
It's not just in schools. It is in movie theaters.
It's happening at grocery stores and in public parks and
(05:44):
also in schools. And so.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
I wish that I.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Felt that I could walk through this world entitled to safety,
but I am not. And there are people in this
world who have never experienced a feeling of safety, may
not in their lifetime, and so to expect that we
can guarantee safety for ourselves and for our children is
an unfortunate untruth. It's we just cannot guarantee it. We
(06:14):
can do everything we can to support it. But I
wanted to say that because safety absolutely is a privilege.
Feeling safe is a privilege. And ultimately, I'm gonna end
with I'm very grateful for those folks who showed up
at public.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
So safety is a privilege.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
And in saying it like that, Lindsay she essentially takes
the onus off of the Jefferson County School Board of
really working to really do their best to achieve a
modicum of safety at a high level so kids can
feel comfortable going to school. Why would kids go to
school if there's no effort, because well, you know what,
we can't, we can't and nobody can guarantee safety. She's
absolutely right about that. And at first I was like, well,
(06:56):
maybe she's gonna say, you know, we can't expect one
hundred percent to guarantee safe, but then she went in
there are other people who never expect safety. This school
board is a clown show. And I'm not asking you
to do agree or disagree, but man, does this school
board need to be changed.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It really really needs to be changed.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
And at least the good news is mister Yoakam has
lost the endorsement of the Jefferson County Education Association, But
that doesn't mean that they're not going to continue to
keep more people like this woman on the school board.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
What was the were you at that.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Meeting, Lindsay, You know I was listening. But Mandy, just
minutes before Evergreen parents who had children running for their lives,
in addition to John Custillo, who's the father of Kendrick Custeo,
the hero who died rushing the shooter at the s
school shooting, spoke to the board and poured their hearts out.
(07:49):
And this was her message as someone on a governing
board of education. And let's just say the quiet part
out loud. What she's doing here is equating safety and DEI.
She's saying that safety is an equitable an equitable issue,
and that is a catastrophic view. These two terms collide
(08:14):
so catastrophically. But we know that this is the case
in Jeffco because Evergreen High School was deprioritized and didn't
have an FRO assigned to them. And so she's basically
just reiterating what we've seen in Jeffco with a placement
of SROs and we can't have children safety as an
equitable issue.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Well, I need to say we played the audio, but
you guys didn't hear it because it was only in
one channel and it didn't go out on the radio.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Let me just tell you the audio.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
In this audio, the school board member said that safety
is a privilege, not a right, that the school district
cannot ensure the safety of every student, which is true.
But then she went on to kind of excuse it
as there are people in this world ever feel safe,
and applying somehow that it's ridiculous for white people to
expect to be safe when there are people who are
(09:06):
not in their same situation who are safe. Ever, it's
just the dumbest, stupidest line of claptrap I've ever heard.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Absolutely, and three TV news stations pick this up. It
just went wild amongst community members. Her most important duty,
it's a very unique duty of care, is to assume
the responsibility in schools, you assume the responsibility of the
parent for a child safety. It's called in local parentis.
She mentioned grocery stores and movie theaters. That is not
(09:37):
the same as institutions that watch over our children safety
for thirty hours a week. She is a jeff c
School's board member. It's unacceptable.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Amen to that, Lindsay.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I appreciate everything that you guys have done at jeff
co Kids first, And I've already told my listeners that
in my if I were in Jefferson County, I would
vote for Denise at Savaria, I would vote for Samuel Myrat,
and I would vote for Gloria Terry Gascone for the
school board and hopefully inject some common sense. I think
(10:10):
that the superintendent needs to be replaced immediately because jeff
Cooe Schools used to be a powerhouse and they're still good.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
They're still good, but if you look at what Cherry
Creek is allowed.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
To happen, you don't want that to happen to jeff
co Right, So those are my opinions, Lindsay, And I'm
not going to ask you to say anything because I
know your organization does not get involved in politics. You
merely inform people of things that happen, Lindsay, dat Coo,
I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Thank you so much, anytime, all right, have.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
A good one. So important school board races
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