Tim Hernández

Hernández begun working at North High School in Denver teaching Mexican American literature and English in January 2021.[10][5][11]

According to Hernández, towards the end of the ongoing academic year, the school did not have enough money to keep him as a teacher, but offered him an associate teaching position for the 2021–2022 academic year under a one-year contract, which Hernández accepted.[12]

In December 2021, a group of students at North High School, spearheaded by Hernández, wrote a photography and poetry book, titled Our Sacred Community.[13] The book describes the lifestyle of Latinx students growing up in the gentrifying North Side, Denver.[14] Along with being free to read online, students were selling physical copies of the book for $10 to fundraise for a student leadership conference they were planning on holding.[15]

In May 2022, after Hernández conducted an interview with North High School, he was told by North High School in a meeting that he did not interview well enough, and so his contract with the school would not be renewed.[10] This decision sparked outrage amongst students, as he was one of the only teachers of color at North High School. Approximately 50 students marched to the Denver Public Schools downtown headquarters, demanding that the school rehire Hernández.[16] On May 13, Hernández was placed on administrative leave after attending a student walkout in support of him;[17] this would be lifted on June 13.[5]

Hernández claimed that he was let go for "retaliatory reasons" and that he "openly [challenged his] principal on issues of equity and anti-racism."[9]

Shortly after being put on paid administrative leave at North High School, Hernández obtained a teaching position at Aurora West College Preparatory Academy in Aurora, Colorado.[5] He was an 11th- and 12th-grade ethnic and Chicano studies teacher.[8] While working there, his class studied movements such as Palestine, works of the Black Panther Party, and the Stonewall riots.[18]

In December 2022, after a shooting occurred at Club Q, a gay bar in Colorado Springs, Colorado, his final assignment was to write letters to victims of the shooting, after his students suggested the idea. Hernández's class was learning about queer studies the week the shooting took place.[18]

Shortly after the 2023 Israel–Hamas war arose, Hernández was criticized after he and around three dozen other participants attended a rally in support of Palestine that took place at the Colorado State Capitol.[26][27] In cellphone footage uploaded to X, Hernández was asked if he condemns Hamas raping and murdering Israelis, which he refused to do, asking, "What about it?" When the person filming said that he found the reason for the protest to be despicable, Hernández dismissed him saying "congratulations."[28]

Fellow state legislators Dafna Michaelson Jenet and Ron Weinberg condemned Hernández's actions and Governor Jared Polis released a statement saying "the only proper response is to condemn Hamas for these evil terrorist attacks on innocent civilians and stand with Israel." Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie and Majority Leader Monica Duran also released a statement saying they are "deeply disappointed that when there was doubt, he chose not to explicitly condemn the violent Hamas terrorist attacks" calling them an "atrocity that demands unequivocal condemnation."[28][29] On October 13, several days after issuing a written apology, Hernández posted a video apology on X, where he formally condemned Hamas.[30]