A month after Denver’s Centennial Elementary School was the target of national backlash for promoting a  “Families of Color Playground Night,” the school was in the national spotlight again after announcing it would participate in the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action that includes a commitment to “the disruption of western nuclear family dynamics.”

The national annual event — which takes place from Jan. 31 through Feb. 4 — encourages schools and educators to teach students about racial justice using 13 guiding principles: “restorative justice, empathy, loving engagement, diversity, globalism, transgender affirming, queer affirming, collective value, intergenerational, Black families, Black villages, Black women and unapologetically Black.”

Erika Sanzi, outreach director for the nonprofit Parents Defending Education, called the guiding principles “indoctrination” and bordering on “abuse.” Among other things, the principles call for “the disruption of western nuclear family dynamics and a return to the ‘collective village’ that takes care of each other.”

“It is preposterous and wholly inappropriate to teach 5- and 6-year-olds that they must commit to being trans affirming and queer affirming and in favor of disrupting the nuclear family,” Sanzi said in a statement. “If a parent wants to raise these subjects at home, that is one thing, but in a classroom, it is nothing more than social engineering and a theft of childhood by the state.”

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After the guiding principles were posted by Parents Defending Education, the school garnered national attention again in publications including the Washington Examiner and Fox News.

The school said the event aligns with the Black Excellence Resolution signed by the Denver school board in 2019 to improve the school experience for Black students. This will be the second year Centennial Elementary School has participated in the BLM at School Week of Action.

Of the 424 students who attend Centennial Elementary School, only three identify as African American, according to the Denver Public Schools website. Over 56% of the students — 239 — are white, 156 are Hispanic, 22 are of multiple races and four are Asian or Pacific Islander.

“We are creating spaces to start important age-appropriate conversations about how our unique perspectives and experiences are contributions to our society that should be celebrated,” the school said in a statement. “We are committed to developing critical thinkers who better understand problems in our society and work together to find solutions to those problems.”

The school district and its board also defended Centennial Elementary School’s participation in the event, saying it is meant to “support and encourage the teaching that racism and hate towards any person have no place in our schools or society.”

Centennial Elementary School is the only school in the district participating in BLM at School Week of Action, said Scott Pribble, a spokesman for Denver Public Schools. Just last month, the school was the target of national pushback following a viral tweet about its “Families of Color Playground Night,” which school leaders said was a result of specific requests from families to create a space of belonging.

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Despite the backlash, Branta Lockett — executive director of the BLM 5280 Freedom School — said it is important to provide students with a strong foundation of valuing and respecting diversity at a young age.

“We’re just teaching our students to accept all humans for who they are,” Lockett said. “It’s inspiring to be able to have those conversations with young people who understand what’s going on in the world and feel like they have a safe space to talk about it.”

The BLM 5280 Freedom School, which has run annual summer camps and monthly study sessions since 2018, develops its curriculum around the 13 guiding principles, with lessons ranging from math to history to the arts.

 Lockett said all of the principles are essential to developing acceptance.

“We’re talking about acceptance of all people,” Lockett said. “You can’t talk about Black Lives Matter without talking about Trans Lives Matter. You can’t talk about Black Lives Matter without talking about the queer people who are part of this movement. We’re not going to remove pieces of the identity.”

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