Former DPS employee critiques board safety planTom Hellauer
tom.hellauer@denvergazette.comTomHellauer
tom.hellauer@denvergazette.com
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The single most effective thing the Denver Public Schools can do to protect its nearly 90,000 students is to rework the discipline matrix used to address problematic behavior.

That was the assessment of Melissa Craven, the district’s former interim deputy chief of support services for its Department of Climate and Safety. She spoke Monday at a press conference at East High School.

Craven spent 12 of her 15 years there in the safety department where she oversaw security technology, implemented security assessments and was responsible for, among other things, emergency management and training.

Craven echoed the comments of Santos Garcia, father of Luis Garcia, who was shot in February in the East High parking lot and later died. Last week, Garcia said that DPS policy doesn’t protect “good kids.”

On March 22, Jerald Mason and Eric Sinclair, both deans at East, were shot and injured while conducting a pat down of a student on March 22.

“The circumstances that lead to the shooting at East on March 22 were not a failure of the department of safety, but that of DPS policy that has become offender centric rather than student safety centric,” Craven said. “I couldn’t agree (more) with Mr. Garcia’s comment that DPS protects the offenders while abandoning the good students.”

Craven pointed to what’s called the “discipline matrix” which, among other things, dictates when law enforcement should be called or when certain behaviors – such as bringing a firearm onto campus – should be referred to an expulsion hearing.

The discipline matrix was last updated in October 2021, according to board documents.

The way Craven sees it, it’s short sided to require school administrators to make that call.

She further criticized, when asked during a Q&A with the media Monday, the first draft of Superintendent Alex Marrero’s safety plan that called for administrators to decide whether to deploy school resource officers (SRO) or weapon detection systems.

Following the March shooting at East, the board of education temporarily reintroduced SROs on high school campuses, which were removed in the wake of police brutality protests in 2020, and tasked Marrero with creating a comprehensive safety plan.

Marrero’s first draft – a 48-page plan that outlined many of the things the district is already doing – discussed a long-term approach to SROs and installing a “weapons detection” system at schools.

In both instances, Marrero recommended the decision be left to individual schools.

“It’s just one more thing that a school leader doesn’t need on their plate,” Craven said.

A second draft of Marrero’s safety plan is expected Friday, with the final version expected June 26.

Craven also said, contrary to what Marrero previously asserted, that school administrators have not been trained to conduct pat downs of students, nor should they.

Campus safety officers who wear ballistic t-shirts and carry handcuffs and pepper spray should be conducting pat downs for weapons, Craven said.

As of April 18, when Craven was let go, about 20% of the district’s campus safety officer positions were unfilled.

“If the department was fully staffed they would be able to handle the number of safety plans,” Craven said.

Roughly 350 students this school year have received a threat assessment. Of those, 42 required a pat down, according to DPS records obtained by the Denver Gazette.

Craven and Paul Ballenger, a security consultant, spoke at Monday’s Parents-Safety Advocacy Group (P-SAG) press conference about safety measures that should be standardized districtwide.

Both Craven and Ballenger have students that attend Denver public schools.

Formed in response to the March 22 shooting, P-SAG has held weekly press conferences since students returned to the classroom.

In the eight weeks since forming, the scrappy grassroots parent organization has elbowed its way onto a seat on the superintendent’s safety committee as well as amplified the voices of concerned parents.

Guest speakers at the group’s weekly press conferences have included Mason, who was wounded in the March shooting, and Garcia.