Colorado Springs School District 11 Superintendent Michael Gaal recommended termination of McAuliffe Elementary School teacher Angelica Givler-Viers during last night’s board of education meeting.
“I’m recommending to the Board of Education that Angelica Givler-Viers, a teacher at McAuliffe Elementary School, be dismissed from her employment with the district on the statutory grounds of insubordination, neglect of duty and/or other good and just cause,” said Gaal. “No action is required by the Board of Education this time.”
Givler-Viers, a literacy teacher, has been on administrative leave since October, which she says is retaliation over her support of the Oct. 8 strike. “This all started when I was posting on my public, personal social media leading up to our strike,” she said. “I was removed from my classroom on Oct. 6, and in that meeting they told me that it was so that they could investigate whether my social media violated any school board policies or laws. But they could not tell me which social medias or which policies or laws were violated, and when I asked multiple times in multiple meetings and emails, they have yet to provide me with that.”
Parents, teachers, and union members gathered outside of the D11 Administrative building last night to rally in support of Givler-Viers. “This is absolutely not about academics, not about teaching styles, not about anything except bald-faced tyranny,” said Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association. “Now when faced with tyranny there are basically four ways people go – they join in, they run and hide, they stand and watch, or they stand against. We choose to stand against. Now, we know how great a teacher Dr. G is. We know how amazing her students feel about her. We know that this has not just disrupted one classroom, this has disrupted an entire school, so tell me where the priorities of this board and this superintendent and this district are. Certainly not with students, certainly not with kids. I want you all to know that the rest of the state is paying attention. They are watching what is happening here. Your brothers and sisters across the state are following you and are supporting you and are ready to act with you moving forward no matter what you do, so keep up the fight. Keep this going because this is important – to stand against the tyranny of this board and this ideology and this time period that we are in right now.”
During her speech at the Oct. 8 rally after the strike, Givler-Viers addressed the political direction of the board. “Some leaders are letting extreme politics get in the way of our students’ needs,” she told the crowd in Acacia Park. “They are prioritizing divisive culture wars, and our children are paying the price. This isn’t coming from our community. It’s being pushed by outside groups trying to turn our neighbor against neighbor.”
Like many districts in Colorado Springs, D11 has been targeted by conservative activists with ties to national conservative groups. During the strike, Ryan Walters of the Teacher Freedom Alliance and Jason Dudash of the Freedom Foundation – both entities funded by conservative groups like the Charles Koch Foundation and the State Policy Network – spoke out against striking teachers.
Givler-Viers said conservative activists may have played a role in the actions taken against her. “Somebody sent the school board my social media, and Moms for Liberty has been following me and actively speaking against me for years,” she said.
D11’s conservative board members have close ties to Republican activists across the state. In 2023, board members Jason Jorgenson, Parth Melpakam, and Thomas Carey took part in a town hall organized by Representatives Rose Pugliese (R-El Paso County) and Don Wilson (R-Monument). The panel was led by former Republican Senate candidate and KNUS radio host Deborah Flora. Flora is a board member of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network (CPAN), an activist group that has advocated against LGBTQ and diversity policies in the Douglas County School District. Recently, board vice president Jill Haffley announced her plan to run for the Colorado House of Representatives House District 16, with the endorsement of current HD16 Rep. Rebecca Keltie (R-Colorado Springs).
Givler-Viers said she will fight the district’s attempts at dismissal. “If they choose to move forward with the dismissal I will file an objection immediately to fight that,” she said.
