If the fight over school closures in Denver Public Schools has shown us anything, it’s how far the school board has transcended onto its own plane of dysfunctional existence. Denverites are right to be outraged at the failure of their elected leaders to handle a sensitive issue with professionalism and dignity.

While the prospect of school closures wasn’t new, the public uproar became especially acute during nearly seven hours of public comment on Monday. The session was predominantly focused on the pending vote, which was scheduled for Thursday.

As communities faced the prospect of losing neighborhood schools — whether a necessary evil or an unnecessary harm, depending on your view — Monday’s meeting descended into another embarrassing, performative display. Once again, board vice president Tay Anderson was at the center.

Around an hour into the meeting, Anderson left the dais to sit in the audience for hours – an unorthodox thing for a board member to do at a school board meeting. It was as if he wanted to appear as the sole board member aligned with a distraught public. It also meant that Anderson was not far from his friend, political operative Hashim Coates, when the latter spoke nearly four hours into the meeting.

Coates stepped up to the lectern and immediately requested a translator repeat his testimony in Spanish. “I believe everyone should have access to see what I have to say,” he insisted. The board president, Sochi Gaytán, obliged.

Coates’ testimony became extraordinarily combative when Gaytán interrupted him for addressing unrelated issues and cut him off due to time limits. She ultimately called on security to remove him when he refused to leave. Anderson stood behind Coates, arms crossed, staring up at his colleagues in a clear show of opposition. From the dais, Esserman likewise backed Coates and objected to security.

Eventually, Gaytán requested that Anderson “please join us over here at the Dais.” They went to a ten-minute recess. Upon return, Coates was allowed more time.

“They love to silence the voices of people that are not white,” he bemoaned, speaking of Gaytán and Superintendent Alex Marrero. “Skinfolks are not our kinfolk.”

Then, Coates’ demeanor turned sharply hostile. “I know what things that need to be flushed look like,” he added, glaring intently at Gaytán for nearly 20 silent, awkward seconds. By the time the translator finished his second translation, nearly half an hour had passed.

“I am still processing last night,” Anderson (who also goes by Auon’tai Anderson) bemoaned on social media Tuesday morning. “The Latina President of the Denver School Board summoned six AMRED (sic) officers to detain a Black, Gay, Veteran who was seeking to use his full three minutes. He was interrupted by her numerous times and his time was stopped from the viewing public. This is an abuse of power and is another example of the Anti-Blackness our communities have been enduring in Denver Public Schools.”

Talk about melodramatic gaslighting.

Gaytán is the board’s sole Hispanic member. Nearly half of all DPS students are Latino. If you read Anderson’s comments, you would think Coates is just a community member prevented from speaking his mind because he’s Black. Except Coates is a close friend of Anderson’s who has supported and worked as a paid operative for him.

Amid last year’s district investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Anderson, which resulted in his censure by the board, Coates repeatedly defended Anderson at multiple press conferences. In public social media posts that summer, Coates labeled a then-18-year-old DPS graduate who protested Anderson a “lil lying-ass racist” and compared her to the Columbine High School killers.

In 2017, Coates was arrested and pleaded guilty to prohibited use of a weapon after having sex with a prostitute and firing a gun into a car in which the prostitute and three others were seated.

In 2019, Anderson paid Coates in two $2,500 installments as a “campaign consultant.” Between June 2021 and January 2022, Esserman likewise paid Coates $15,500 for campaign consulting. (Anderson, who is close to Esserman, was also paid several thousand dollars by the campaign.)

Let’s be clear: Coates is a paid political operative for sitting school board members, not an everyday community member. His insistence on Spanish translation and extra time derailed the meeting by half an hour. He was never forcibly removed. And he got to speak again, making it about race. Meanwhile, Anderson stood behind Coates and warped the whole thing into a racial issue the next day.

On Sunday, Dr. Alveda King addressed the launch of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, a new statewide parents education organization. “For America’s education of our children to succeed, we must unite,” she declared, echoing the sentiments of her uncle, the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “We are the one-blood human race.”

Dr. King offers an important admonition for Denver’s embarrassing school board. Enough is enough. Student achievement is cratering – and schools were on the chopping block. Why can’t DPS focus on their many, pressing issues without the drama?

It is past time that they abandon racial divisions, disown personal distractions and act in the best interests of all students, regardless of their race or ethnicity.

Jimmy Sengenberger is host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Show” Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on News/Talk 710 KNUS. He also hosts “Jimmy at the Crossroads,” a webshow and podcast in partnership with The Washington Examiner.