Gun-control measures under consideration at the Capitol would have done nothing to prevent last week’s shooting at Denver’s East High School and are unlikely to head off another such incident, heaven forbid.

What could make a difference, however, is the regular presence of police officers – who now will come back to Denver high schools in the wake of the shooting.

In a thoughtless political stunt in June 2020 following the slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Denver Public Schools board voted to expel 18 Denver police who had been serving as school resource officers. Their return to Denver schools was approved Thursday by the board – belatedly and grudgingly – after the East High shooting left it no choice.

It is disgraceful it took a couple of years of rising campus violence – capped by a calamity – to shame the board into reversing its reckless decision.

And even then, it had to be force-fed its crow.

Mayor Michael Hancock first had to point out in a public statement hours after the shooting that the cops’ ouster was “a mistake.” Then Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero announced the same day he would ask Denver police to post a cop at each district high school for the rest of the school year – in defiance of his board’s policy. Kudos to Marrero.

It was only at that point the feckless board relented, allowing police back until the end of this school year. After that, Marrero is supposed to come up with a long-term safety plan.

The board’s exact reasoning was hashed out in an hours-long “executive session” of dubious legal standing, shutting out the press and public. But it’s a safe bet board members met behind closed doors to save face – not realizing they looked ridiculous and incompetent anyway.

The perennial debate over gun control was of no consequence to last Wednesday’s sad turn of events, in which a student shot and seriously wounded two school administrators. No waiting period for gun purchases, change in the legal age of sale, lawsuit or red-flag order would have mattered. The suspect, who was found dead later that day, was a minor who could not have legally purchased any firearm and was illegally in possession of the gun he used. It’s noteworthy he was attending East after having been expelled from Cherry Creek Schools, and given his troubled record, he was being checked for weapons when he opened fire.

It never should have come to this, of course. Police should have remained on campus all along.

Many Colorado school districts benefit greatly from school resource officers stationed on their campuses; the campus cops yield wide-ranging dividends. They serve as positive role models for kids who may be wary of law enforcement. They develop friendships with students and steer some of them straight. And they build bonds to nearby neighborhoods. Most pressing right now, they provide irreplaceable security in these dangerous times.

Some of the district’s own principals had pleaded with the DPS board back in 2020 not to dismiss the school resource officers. They attested to the good work they officers did and the vital security they provided.

Instead, the board chose to play politics with the welfare of Denver’s kids.

Incredibly, board President Xochitl Gaytan still wasn’t chastened at a Thursday news conference. She attempted to shift blame, observing, “I believe that there’s been a societal failure.”

She and her fellow board members would do better to focus on their own failure. And voters would do well to remember it – in next fall’s election.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board