Douglas County’s lack of diversity poses challenges for Black students
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Jessica Gibbs/Colorado Community Media
This story originally appeared in
. It is republished here with permission.
Max Malone and his family moved from Denver to Castle Rock after his family weathered financial struggles, hoping the town could provide a less stressful environment for his younger siblings.
Instead Malone whose father is Black and mother white said he encountered significantly more racism than he did when living in other Denver metro area communities.
During his sophomore and junior years at Castle View High School, Malone a student of color in a school that was nearly 80% white grew increasingly demoralized as he said he repeatedly found bathroom stalls vandalized with racist slurs. One of the messages, he said, read: “Kill (N-word)!”