Black scholars in Denver are suing the varsity district, pronouncing it is attempting to “scouse borrow” their podcast identify “Know Justice, Know Peace.”
The lawsuit says the scholars, who created the racial justice podcast “Know Justice, Know Peace” following George Floyd’s homicide in 2020, made “an immediate hit” that were given the eye of media shops together with the “As of late” display, The Denver Put up reported.
The gang — composed of 4 Black present and previous scholars at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early School — sued Denver Public Colleges in federal court docket on Monday. The district filed 3 trademark programs, together with one state utility and two federal programs, for the identify, in step with the lawsuit.
A Colorado trademark registration referenced in reporting via Chalkbeat Colorado unearths the district described the collection as “providing details about inequities within the tutorial gadget [and] offering answers for enforcing, making improvements to, [and] maintaining fairness.”
The lawsuit described an understatement within the district’s effort to trademark the identify.
“The irony of DPS’s makes an attempt … is that DPS has for years fallen approach quick on Black historical past, racial justice and schooling round those essential problems,” the lawsuit mentioned. “That their newly discovered and considerably tardy need to handle racial problems needed to come on this shape is a tragic observation at the state of DPS.”
A spokesperson for Denver Public Colleges instructed HuffPost it will now not supply remark because of the pending litigation.
District Deputy Superintendent Anthony Smith met with scholars and their oldsters so that you could “coerce and bully” them into pronouncing the district owned the trademark, in step with the lawsuit.
“Significantly, it’s your purchasers who’re chargeable for trademark infringement,” the district’s legal professional mentioned in a letter to the scholars’ legal professional.
Chalkbeat reported that an legal professional for the district despatched a letter in August to former fundamental Kimberly Grayson, who was once concerned within the podcast’s introduction, referring to her registration of a trade named “Know Justice, Know Peace: The Take LLC.”
The letter, which Chalkbeat mentioned it gained thru a public information request, mentioned the identify belonged to Denver Public Colleges and described the podcast as produced with district apparatus on its belongings.
Grayson mentioned in an electronic mail to district group of workers got via Chalkbeat that she registered the trade as a result of she had left the varsity and the scholars sought after to file the podcast independently.
She wrote that the district was once contradicting itself for expressing its stance on fairness whilst additionally pronouncing it “OWNS 4 Black younger girls’ symbol, voice, and content material,” in step with Chalkbeat.