Denver Public Schools (DPS) Superintendent Alex Marrero Monday released the much-anticipated draft of a comprehensive safety plan the Board of Education called for in the wake of the March shooting at East High School.

The 48-page plan outlines the district’s proposed responses in several areas, with the goal of “(maximizing) the safety of every student, educator and visitor” to DPS sites. 

Notably, the plan discusses a long-term approach to school resource officers from the Denver Police Department and installing a “weapons detection” system at schools.

In both instances, Marrero recommends that the decision be left to individual schools. He proposes, for example, that retaining SROs be “site-based,” effectively leaving the matter in the hands of 6-12 grade campuses, rather than as a requirement from the district’s board that all schools must abide by. 

He also suggests that the schools revisit the decision each year.  

In addition, the superintendent discussed – but once again offered no district-wide position – on installing a “weapons detection system,” such as those used in airports and sports arenas. Instead, the safety plan says, “The determination of a weapon detection system at a school or district building will be a site-based decision with extensive community engagement.” 

The safety plan is available here. 

Marrero is expected to spend the next three weeks gathering community feedback from surveys and virtual town halls before releasing a second version on May 26, according to a timeline provided to the board.

“I think that it is very important for everyone to know that this is not the final version. This first version is far from a finished product,” Marrero said in a news release Monday. “We have listened to our safety experts and received some community input. Now, we want to hear from our students, our families, our staff, and our community. There will be many ways for you to share your input with us that will be announced in the coming days.”

A final version is scheduled to be released June 26.

Marrero will not be speaking to media about his safety plan, said Scott Pribble, a district spokesperson.

In the proposed plan, Marrero said gun detection could be achieved using a “low profile entry-based weapons detection systems similar to those currently being used in other school districts.” He specifically mentioned the Baltimore Public Schools, which initially installed metal detectors in some schools that resulted in bottlenecks but has since adopted a program that offers more sophisticated technology.

Baltimore officials said the program seeks to avoid gridlocks by using technology that deploys artificial intelligence and advanced sensors using low frequency radio waves to detect metal objects. The company behind it claims the technology is “incredibly accurate and can screen up to 3,600 people per hour – 10 times faster than traditional metal detectors.” 

It’s not immediately clear whether Marrero was simply describing what’s already in place or proposing a change.     

The plan, for example, outlines current protocols in response to any potential threat from a student. Notably, the DPS Threat Response Process is triggered when a student poses a threat, makes a threat, or if there is concern a student may “be about to act out violently.”

The plan says such students are identified through peer referrals, reports by parent, referrals from law enforcement and notifications from the district attorney, as well as anonymous tips to existing tip lines, notably Lightspeed and Safe2Tell Colorado.

But the section doesn’t explicitly offer a set of new recommendations. The plan takes the same approach to discussions on discipline practices, crisis response protocols and youth violence prevention, although it says DPS intends to “deeply partner” with the city of Denver on youth violence prevention efforts. 

Meanwhile, under a section on school emergency teams, the safety plan says that, for 2023, “there will be greater emphasis on mandatory emergency management training for all district staff.”

And, under a brief discussion on student searches, the document notes that an administrative policy governs “interviews, interrogations, searches and arrests,” and that the district “recently addressed search processes during a conversation with deans and other leaders on Friday, April 7, 2023.”

Marrero released his safety plan to DPS Board of Education directors in advance of releasing it to the public.

The plan drew immediate criticism.

Board President Auon’tai M. Anderson said Monday, having read about half of the nearly 50-page document, that he wasn’t “thrilled with some of the recommendations” notably the recommendation to place medal detectors on campuses. In a surprise twist, Anderson, who was a strong advocate for removing cops from schools, said he would rather support plain-clothed police on campus with additional duties to policing.

The board first tasked Marrero with developing and maintaining a safe schools plan on Oct. 21, 2021.

But a shooting on March 22 – when two East High School administrators, Jerald Mason and Eric Sinclair, were shot while conducting a pat down of the suspected shooter for weapons under the school’s “safety plan” – brought to the front the plan’s urgency.   

The next day, after emerging from a closed-door meeting, the board unanimously voted to temporarily return police to the district’s comprehensive high schools and instructed Marrero to create a long-term, comprehensive safety plan.

The public outcry was swift.

Demonstrators have called for the board’s resignation.

And others – particularly the Parents-Safety Advocacy Group (P-SAG) – have criticized Marrero and the board for their lack of transparency. Organized after the East High shooting, P-SAG members have demanded more public involvement in creating the safety plan.

Parents, too, have blasted the board for its March 23 five-hour executive session – which was closed to the public – in which directors were to discuss security, but included a public relations and marketing expert.

A First Amendment attorney in Denver called the executive session, “a clear-cut violation of the open meetings law,” which requires state and local governments to discuss and take action in meetings open to the public. A lawsuit filed last week on behalf of a group of local media, including The Denver Gazette, seeks to have a judge release the recording from the March 23 executive session.

While the board instructed Marrero to create a safety plan within 14 weeks – swift for a public entity by any measure – this is not the first time the superintendent has been advised to do so.

When DPS removed officers from campuses – under a previous superintendent following the summer of police protests in 2020 – the board of education wanted to “redefine school safety” with a new plan.

Marrero’s safety plan also includes an “equity statement,” saying that “racial and educational Equity is our collective responsibility” that can be achieved by “(dismantling) deeply rooted systems of oppression that have historically resulted in inequitable access and distribution of opportunities and resources for those who represent marginalized identities, including race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, language and ability.”