Denver Public Schools board votes to reinstate school resource officers

The Denver Public Schools Board of Education Thursday voted unanimously to suspend its ban on armed school resource officers on school campuses and directed the superintendent to devise a long-term safety plan before the end of June.

Part of Thursday’s directive instructs Superintendent Alex Marrero to ensure teachers and staff are not using armed police for discipline issues that arise in the classroom.

“I believe that there’s been a societal failure,” Board President Xóchitl Gaytán said during a news conference Thursday.

Gaytán added: “For us to incur the death of a student is not OK.”

The news conference followed an emergency executive session for the board to discuss the East High School shooting Wednesday in which two administrators were shot.

The administrators — Jerald Mason, who was discharged from Denver Health, and Eric Sinclair, who is still hospitalized following surgery — were conducting a pat down of the suspected shooter for weapons under the school’s “safe plan” when they were shot.

‘Carry the fear of potential violence’

In the wake of the shooting, Marrero said he would place armed officers at each of the district’s comprehensive high schools through the end of the academic year.

The board’s action Thursday supported this decision.

In June 2020, the DPS board unanimously voted to cut ties with Denver Police, following the public outcry and nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Classes have been suspended through the end of the week.

In order to help process the violence, officials are holding a mental health day for students and staff Friday, according to a districtwide email sent from the superintendent’s office.

“No student or employee should have to carry the fear of potential violence when they walk into our buildings each day,” Marrero said in the email to parents.

The district will provide food pick-up locations and support to families who need extended care.

‘Continue to be our policy’

After a marathon executive session that stretched more than four hours, DPS officials limited media questions to about 20 minutes, leaving many questions unanswered.

Officials did not provide a medical update on the wounded administrators.

Nor would they say how many students — like 17-year-old accused shooter Austin Lyle — require daily pat downs for weapons.

Marrero defended the weapon search by administrators, saying it was a common practice in the U.S. Police officers, Marrero added, cannot search a student without probable cause, but school officials can do so with parental consent.

“That will continue to be our policy,” Marrero said.

The removal of school resource officers (SRO) is the subject of hot debate with communities of color with a negative history with police opposed to the return. Board members Thursday defended the move and the suggestion they had "flip-flopped" on the issue. 

Gaytán, who has a 15-year-old who attends a DPS school, held back tears as she spoke and wondered aloud what more could have done to support Lyle.

And she spoke about her own fears.

“The emotion comes because many of us sitting before you are parents with students in the district,” Gaytán said.

‘It’s not a retirement job’

Denver Police Officer Francisco Alba was on the East High campus Wednesday morning responding to separate issue when he heard shots ring out.

Alba, who served as an SRO for 16 years, said he helped place Mason and Sinclair on a stretcher.

He applauded the move to return SROs to the classroom, but expressed concern about the board’s narrow directive related to that which officers should respond.

“One student and one adult is far too many when we’re dealing with our kids, our treasure,” Alba said.

And he challenged an outdated view that officers come into schools to coast into retirement.

“It’s not a retirement job,” Alba said. “There are officers that want to be in school.”

In 2020, Alba received a regional service award from the National Association for School Resource Officers for going “above and beyond” as an SRO. He is expected to help DPS on campus through the end of the school year.

‘The root issue’

Wednesday marked the second shooting in six weeks at East High School. Hundreds of students Thursday took to the capitol to demand action, as they did just three weeks ago.

Parents, too, questioned whether school administrators were doing enough to protect students.

“Why have we charged underpaid educators with being police officers,” said Dr. Lynsee Hudson Lang, a neurologist whose son is a sophomore at East High School.

Lang was among a handful of parents who attended the executive session, hoping to get answers.

“We’re failing if we can’t just get the framework and architect for a safe learning environment,” Lang said.

Steve Katsaros, who also has a sophomore at East High and attended the executive session, said he would purchase and donate a dozen metal detectors to the district.

It is unclear whether district officials have seriously entertained the idea.

Clara Taub, a 16-year-old East High sophomore who attended the news conference Thursday, said she opposed metal detectors on campus.

“That doesn’t get down to the root issue of access to guns,” Taub said.