Colleagues and parents wrote letters and spoke at Tuesday’s Boulder Valley school board meeting to defend Fairview High teacher Rebecca Roetto, who Boulder Valley Superintendent Rob Anderson has recommended for dismissal.
According to a district memo provided to the school board, Roetto drew cartoon penises on student papers and in a student’s yearbook in May. Roetto, who has been employed in the district since 2003, taught Wellness in Action, Yoga and Bowling classes last school year at Fairview, as well as running the Adelante! program. Adelante! provides support to first-generation students.
Following an investigation, the school district concluded that Roetto engaged in misconduct and exhibited inappropriate behavior with and toward students that constitutes sexual harassment in violation of multiple board policies, according to the memo.
Roetto, who has been on paid leave since Aug. 7, did not speak at Tuesday’s meeting. The dismissal recommendation was an information item and wasn’t discussed by the school board.
Jennifer Contreras Robles, a former Fairview student who’s now a sophomore at the University of Colorado, said at Tuesday’s meeting that Roetto supported her when another teacher discriminated against her, and helped her apply for college.
“Miss Roetto has spent her career speaking up for those of us who don’t have a voice,” she said. “There are real problems at Fairview, and Miss Roetto is not one of them. She is the kindest, most supportive teacher that I have had.”
Other speakers shared details about the incident, saying Roetto didn’t have a stamp she needed to complete the “check-out” forms that seniors must have for graduation. They said the students, who were greeted that morning by hundreds of penises drawn on the building, joked that she should draw penises in place of the stamp. After she obliged and drew a penis on 10 students’ forms, a school security guard saw one and reported it.
“Was what happened a mistake? Yes,” said Randi Hart, who worked with Roetto as a substitute teacher. “Should a 20-year career go down the drain because of it? No.”
Speakers said Roetto has served as an “unwavering source of support” for students and questioned why a single mistake would lead to the district firing a veteran teacher.
Kari Costello, a former Fairview teacher who now works at Boulder High, said it’s part of a pattern of female teachers being disproportionately “harassed, reprimanded or punished.” She asked for an independent investigation into gender discrimination in the district.
“Teachers are living in fear,” she said.
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Another speaker, parent Katherine Francis, questioned if Roetto’s advocacy for students is the real reason for the dismissal recommendation. Roetto, she said, supported multiple students who were the victims of sexual assault and harassment and advocated for a better school culture.
Fairview students in recent years led a broad reckoning over the school’s culture amid multiple sexual assault and harassment allegations between students. Two former Fairview students also brought a federal sexual harassment lawsuit against Boulder Valley, which the district settled in 2022.
“I can’t help but wonder if what we’re witnessing today is retaliation for her using her voice to draw attention to these failures in our schools,” Francis said.
The Denver Post contributed to this report.
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