Black pupils in Denver are suing the school district, declaring it is striving to “steal” their podcast title “Know Justice, Know Peace.”
The lawsuit states the learners, who created the racial justice podcast “Know Justice, Know Peace” next George Floyd’s murder in 2020, made “an fast hit” that acquired the focus of media retailers like the “Today” exhibit, The Denver Post reported.
The team — composed of 4 Black current and former learners at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early School — sued Denver Community Faculties in federal courtroom on Monday. The district submitted a few trademark programs, including a person state application and two federal apps, for the identify, in accordance to the lawsuit.
A Colorado trademark registration referenced in reporting by Chalkbeat Colorado reveals the district described the sequence as “offering data about inequities in the educational method [and] delivering alternatives for implementing, improving upon, [and] sustaining equity.”
The lawsuit described an irony in the district’s effort to trademark the title.
“The irony of DPS’s attempts … is that DPS has for decades fallen way small on Black record, racial justice and education and learning all around these essential concerns,” the lawsuit stated. “That their freshly found and appreciably tardy wish to address racial difficulties had to appear in this sort is a unhappy commentary on the state of DPS.”
A spokesperson for Denver General public Faculties advised HuffPost it would not offer remark because of to the pending litigation.
District Deputy Superintendent Anthony Smith satisfied with learners and their mom and dad in an energy to “coerce and bully” them into expressing the district owned the trademark, according to the lawsuit.
“Notably, it is your clients who are liable for trademark infringement,” the district’s lawyer reported in a letter to the students’ attorney.
Chalkbeat claimed that an lawyer for the district sent a letter in August to previous principal Kimberly Grayson, who was included in the podcast’s development, relating to her registration of a organization named “Know Justice, Know Peace: The Acquire LLC.”
The letter, which Chalkbeat stated it received by means of a public data request, mentioned the name belonged to Denver Community Educational institutions and explained the podcast as created with district machines on its property.
Grayson mentioned in an electronic mail to district team acquired by Chalkbeat that she registered the business enterprise due to the fact she had left the university and the learners wanted to report the podcast independently.
She wrote that the district was contradicting alone for expressing its stance on fairness when also declaring it “OWNS 4 Black younger ladies’ picture, voice, and content material,” in accordance to Chalkbeat.
