School Board Candidate With Disabilities Sues Cherry Creek School District Over Mask Mandate
Lack of Accommodations for Disabilities Prevents Participation in Candidate Forums
A local school board candidate with multiple disabilities that preclude her from wearing a face covering has filed suit against the Cherry Creek School District for its repeated refusals to provide accommodations that would allow her to participate fully in candidate forums. The lawsuit was filed today in federal District Court by the nonpartisan Public Trust Institute (PTI).
Schumé Navarro has two medically diagnosed disabilities, including a psychological disorder that stems from physical abuse as a child related to suffocation. This condition, which predates COVID-19, causes panic and difficulty breathing when her face and nose are covered. Navarro also suffers from a facial injury that makes breathing difficult even when her face is uncovered.
The suit details how, despite these documented disabilities, Cherry Creek School District officials would permit no deviation from its mandatory mask policy during recent candidate forums, including:
n Publicly shaming Navarro when she attempted to pull the district-provided mask down to reduce her anxiety and introduce herself to voters.
n Telling Navarro that she would be treated like a trespasser and barred from ever entering school property again if she didn’t wear a mask.
n Refusing to even discuss any accommodation to allow Navarro to participate in candidate forums – including allowing her to appear remotely.
"This lawsuit is not about a political statement on masks. It is about medicine, science and my fundamental right to be able to participate fully in candidate forums despite my disabilities,” Navarro said. “Mask advocates constantly assert society should 'follow the science.' Since I have two documented disabilities that preclude me from safely wearing a face covering, Cherry Creek School District officials should shelve their ideological mask-compliance mania and follow the science in my case. It’s a shame I have to go to court to obtain basic compassion and enforce fairness for people with disabilities.”
Due to the District’s intransigence, Navarro has been unable to participate in several recent candidate forums. With additional forums coming up the days and weeks ahead, she feels her candidacy will be unfairly damaged unless the Court intervenes on her behalf.
“The mean-spirited discrimination the school district has displayed here is unfortunate. Schumé Navarro is not trying to be a rabble-rouser. She simply wants to compete on an equal playing field with the other candidates, without being discriminated against based on her disabilities,” said PTI Legal Director Dan Burrows. “With the clock ticking this election season and multiple candidate forums on the calendar, we had to act quickly ask a federal judge to step in and force the Cherry Creek School District to stop treating Mrs. Navarro as a second-class citizen.”
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