A leaked internal safety report – conducted in the wake of the East High School shooting that Denver Public Schools has shielded from public disclosure – lays bare the conflict between officials’ efforts to reduce expulsions and frustrated teachers left to deal with the fallout.

The draft report highlights a number of safety concerns.

The Denver Gazette requested under the Colorado Open Records Act the contract with PrincipalEd Consulting and the final report.

Youngquist safety report

District officials refused to release the report, citing “attorney-client privilege.” The full report is roughly 30 pages and contains recommendations for the district.

9News, The Denver Gazette’s news partner, obtained an 11-page draft of the report.

Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith commissioned John Youngquist, president of PrincipalEd Consulting, to conduct an emergency management and crisis response protocols for 11 of the district’s high schools, including East High.

Youngquist, who is running for an at-large seat on the school board, declined to comment on the report, but he sent a statement to The Denver Gazette through his campaign.

John Youngquist

“After all the violence we’ve experienced recently in our schools, safety is a very legitimate concern for many parents, teachers and students in DPS – and we should not be minimizing these concerns,” Youngquist said. “We need a functional school board that is transparent and capable of handling the serious challenges that face the district.”

In an internal email to district staff obtained by The Denver Gazette, Superintendent Alex Marrero said the point-in-time snapshot in the Youngquist assessment was meant to “seek out the safety concerns of our school leaders in conjunction with the development of our comprehensive safety plan.”

Marrero has been under fire for months for a series of missteps, which included an illegal executive session he requested and the firing of a popular principal at McAuliffe International Middle School, who raised safety issues about being forced to conduct similar pat downs as the one that led to the March 22 shooting at East High.

“The attempt by some to imply that DPS is minimizing safety concerns is clearly politics being played out in the public,” Marrero wrote in the Oct. 9 email.

Campus safety has been an issue that has roiled public sentiment and galvanized a movement to recall Denver’s board of education.

According to the draft, Youngquist conducted more than 150 hours of interviews with high school “safety teams,” which highlighted a number of concerns in the wake of the shooting.

The interviews took place in the weeks after two East High School deans were shot and wounded while attempting to conduct a pat down of 17-year-old Austin Lyle on March 22. Police said Lyle, whom they accused of shooting the administrators, later committed suicide. 

Among the findings highlighted in the draft:

? The district’s safety plan, which has since been updated, is so high-level it doesn’t represent the reality of teachers and administrators

? Safety plans have become a substitute for expulsions and student admission denials

? Students don’t see the district as responsive enough to behavior concerns by their peers

? Deans and school administrators are not provided appropriate training and support

? School leaders are unable to elevate to an expulsion hearing students who engage in multiple violent actions

“Because the district’s sole focus seems to be on reducing suspension and expulsion numbers, and although schools work to represent ‘real’ data, there is an inherent disincentive for schools to report/represent real numbers in the system,” the report said.

In one example, a staffer told PrincipalEd: “It is harder to return to play sports after a concussion than to return to a classroom after a threat of a weapon, violence, or a significant mental health episode.”