Parents of East High students demand answers, solutions in wake of shootingsTom Hellauer
tom.hellauer@denvergazette.comTomHellauer
tom.hellauer@denvergazette.com
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After the dust settled from the Denver Public Schools Board of Education’s decision to remove cops in schools in 2020, the superintendent was supposed to revise the district’s safety policies – something East High School parents Monday expressed doubts as to whether that ever happened.

And after the shooting last month in which two administrators were wounded, the board instructed Superintendent Alex Marrero, who joined DPS in July 2021, to devise a long-term safety plan before the end of June.

“We have a high level of skepticism,” said Steve Katsaros, a founding member of the Parents-Safety Advocacy Group (P-SAG) and the parent of an East High School sophomore. 

Katsaros spoke from in front of the school on Monday with group representatives. 

The group has vowed to hold a press conference at the school every Monday until district authorities have adequately answered its questions.

Katsaros added: “I don’t think that they can correct their own mistakes.”

P-SAG, which has about 950 members, formed in the wake of last month’s shooting.

About 30 parents, alumni and former educators held a press conference outside of East High School on Monday to call attention to what they described as a lack of transparency.

Board Vice President Auon’tai M. Anderson and Board Director Scott Esserman attended the press conference, saying they would report back to the full board what parents shared.

P-SAG members reviewed all of the board’s meeting minutes since it voted to in June 2020 – at the height of national protests against the deaths of African Americans by police officers- to remove school resource officers from campus.

Parents on Monday called for DPS to empower teachers, deans and principals, create a data-driven safety plan and update the discipline matrix used to determine the district’s response for an infraction.

The group intends to draft its own recommendations before the end of May, ahead of Marrero’s plan, said Dr. Lynsee Hudson, a P-SAG founding member and the parent of a sophomore at East High School.

Balancing safety and education, parents said, is at the heart of the work the district needs to do.

Astrid Ruiz said all students deserve a high-quality education – even the accused shooter – but not at the expense of the 2,500 students who, like her son, attend East High School.

Ruiz further implored the board to not “hide behind equity,” the driving force behind removing school resource officers whose presence critics see as perpetuating the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

A safety plan, Ruiz and others said, is needed now.

“Stop saying we’re looking into it,” Ruiz said. “We need answers.”

The Denver Gazette asked DPS officials about the revised safety policies the board instructed the district draft in 2020, as well as the new Memorandum of Understanding with the Denver Police Department meant to clarify law enforcement’s “ongoing, but more limited, role” with school safety.

Scott Pribble, the district’s spokesperson, did not respond by late Monday afternoon.