While the Denver Public School board continues to investigate McAuliffe International School officials use of a “seclusion room,” some students’ parents have come to former principal Kurt Dennis’ defense.

“I was aware of everything going on, but when these specific accusation came out, I just couldn’t sit back and let Kurt Dennis be dragged through the mud about something that I know has so much inaccuracy to it,” parent Jessie Hawthorn said in an interview with The Denver Gazette.

Dennis, the former principal of McAuliffe International School, was fired in July following an interview on 9News in which he questioned pressure from the school board to accommodate potentially dangerous students.

The decision struck a nerve with McAuliffe parents. A petition to reinstate the principal is currently at 6,184 signatures. The school board is scheduled to vote on the matter Aug. 24.

The issue hit a feverish crescendo last week when whistleblowers came out with information about an “incarceration room” where students were locked inside following charged or violent behavior. All under Dennis’ watch.

Hawthorn, like the thousands of petition signers, believes the accusations to be baseless. She states that she confidently supports Dennis as a principal and said: “Without Dennis’ leadership, the school wouldn’t be so excellent when so many Denver Public schools are failing.”

Her children, Sedik and Abezash Mote, were adopted from Ethiopia in 2011. Sedik went through a gamut of tribulations during his transition into school life. He bounced around schools in elementary as Hawthorn searched for a program that could better suit his emotional and behavioral needs.

He entered McAuliffe’s affective needs program in 2018. And, according to Hawthorn, became the only school he felt comfortable in during his educational career. She credits this to Dennis’ leadership.

“My son was well known by every principal in every school for very bad reasons,” she said. “This was the first instance where the relationship with the principal was positive and supportive. The principal made an effort to get to know him. Every other principal was afraid of him or punished him.”

Dennis would go out of his way to meet with Mote and learn about him “almost every day.”

When talks circled around the “incarceration” or “seclusion” room being targeted toward black students, Hawthorn believed something was amiss.

“I think there were kids that were violent and aggressive,” Hawthorn said. “But because black kids are disproportionately placed in these behavioral programs, it’s likely those were the kids in that room. It’s being made out to be premeditated and made to harm certain students of certain backgrounds. That I don’t agree with.”

Dennis’ attorney, David Lane, recently said: “Last year, two students were in the de-escalation room, one white, one black. Both families support this use of de-escalation.”

“DPS is doing everything in their power to vilify Kurt Dennis,” Lane said in a statement Tuesday. “They are safe rooms used when a student is committing violent crimes at school, such as assaulting a teacher. One option would be to call the police, have the student handcuffed and taken to juvenile detention. A much more humane approach is that used by Kurt Dennis, where the student is escorted to the room to de-escalate.”

Administrators did not want to risk being in the room during those violent episodes and watched through the window “until he felt it was safe to enter with a psychologist and/or special education teacher.”

That policy is approved by DPS, Lane said.

Hawthorn notes that Mote was never placed in the “de-escalation” room during his time at McAuliffe. If he did, she would have spoken out immediately.

“As a mother of a student who had been out of control and aggressive in certain periods, if I was told my child was left alone in a room and locked so he couldn’t come out, I would immediately speak,” Hawthorn said. “Why wouldn’t a parent who knew that not come forward? Why is this being stirred up after Dennis was fired? That’s very suspicious to me.”

Hawthorn questions Denver Public Schools board’s tolerance for dissent.

“DPS continues to lose it’s good leaders… When their leaders speak out against the status quo and question things related to charter schools and innovation zones, they get targets on their back,” Hawthorn said.

She states that a lot of her childrens’ educational successes stem from the home built at McAuliffe — the way they were treated and the support the staff provided. The whole episode has deeply upset Mote, she said.

“A lot of Sedik’s success is attributed to Kurt Dennis really wanting all kids to be treated fairly and equally,” Hawthorn said. “I don’t believe he would do anything to harm a student or staff member. It’s entirely out of character for him.”

Editor’s note: The original version of this story contained an inaccuracy about which students were put in the seclusion room.