Parents on Thursday packed a Jefferson County Schools board meeting in Golden to voice concerns over child safety after four employees were arrested for sexual assault on a child over the last year and the district’s chief of schools committed suicide amid a child pornography investigation.

The Jeffco Kids First advocacy group also announced at the meeting that it — with the help of legal and investigative experts — discovered 26 overall cases of sexual abuse, misconduct, grooming, hiring, firing and reporting issues since 2022 in the district, according to Lindsay Datko, creator of the group and lifelong Jefferson County resident.

Datko and 10 family members of victims and investigators stood at the podium in front of a packed auditorium at the Jefferson County School District building in Golden. Down the hall, an overflow room was filled with spectators. A line of citizens waited outside for a spot in the overflow room.

“Jeffco must act swiftly to address these threats that deceive and divide families and endanger children,” Datko said to the board. “Jeffco must restore parental and guardian trust through adequate reporting, erring on the side of child safety, and consistent, accountable solutions that strictly follow sound processes, policies and laws.”

The school board did not respond. One spectator yelled from the back, “You need to keep children safe.”

The school district said in February it’s continuing to work to improve the safety of children, even bringing in local law enforcement partners and the Ralston House — a local nonprofit that works with children who have been sexually abused — to act as consultants in the district’s handling of both policies and hiring procedures.

But parents are still concerned that the issues are stemming from the top, with an alleged lack of oversight and discipline, and troubling policies potentially leading to the rise in like cases.

“Jeffco doesn’t have boundaries,” Valerie Leal, a Jeffco mom who formerly represented charter schools on Jeffco’s District Accountability Committee, told The Denver Gazette. “They don’t have clear boundaries of what is or isn’t appropriate behavior between staff and children.”

The Denver Gazette reached the district spokesperson for comment, but they declined until Friday. 

Four arrests, other incidents

First Judicial District Judge Chantel Contiguglia sentenced 28-year-old former Jefferson County paraprofessional Imagine Kay Ewer to four years in prison Jan. 31 for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student.

Ewer, who worked in a special needs classroom, started an inappropriate relationship with the student around Nov. 30, 2023. She was initially sent home on administrative leave after a note was found on the student’s paperwork using explicit words to describe someone named Imagine, according to arrest records.

In November 2023, the school rearranged Ewer’s schedule because she was showing “favoritism” to the student, with witnesses saying she was “overly familiar and friendly with students,” according to arrest records.

Former JeffCo paraprofessional sentenced for sexually assaulting student

Investigators found around 21,900 texts between Ewer and the student on Dec. 11, 2023, talking about sexual acts, smoking marijuana and doing cocaine or fentanyl together.

Ewer eventually pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust.

That was the first in five similar cases.

Luis Fernando Robles-Luevanos, 29, was arrested on Feb. 15, 2024 by the Lakewood Police Department after allegedly assaulting two boys under 15 at Creighton Middle School, according to his arrest affidavit.

Robles-Luevanos worked as a family liaison and coach for the school for around three years, acting as a translator for Spanish-speaking families. 

The suspect allegedly brought the boys into his office and performed an “exam,” according to arrest records. He was charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and one count of criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a third child.

Justin Martinez, an afterschool care programs worker for multiple schools in the district, was arrested in May 2024 for an alleged sexual assault on a child. 

Martinez’s arrest records are still sealed as of April, according to the Jefferson County Combined Court.

Chloe Castro, 28, was arrested by the Arvada Police Department on Nov. 6, 2024, on suspicion of sexual assault on a child in a position of trust with a pattern of abuse after the married woman allegedly began sending inappropriate messages to a 14-year-old she met while he was in sixth grade.

The two discussed moving to New Mexico or California together when he turned 18 to start a new life, according to arrest records.

Jeffco Kids First also claimed that the district was involved in a previous settlement with Castro and another family. 

The Denver Gazette reached out to the school district and all of the members of the district’s school board for comment on the four confirmed cases, but did not hear back by the time of this report.

These incidents were just around 2024. Datko said there were 26 incidents regarding misconduct, grooming or related incidents between 2022 and 2024.

These incidents included the aforementioned assaults, a cheer coach letting students into their private hotel room, a teacher falsely claiming a student was homeless to have them move in with him and a teacher who allegedly violated directives not to be alone with students over their 14-year career, including multiple suspensions.

Thirteen of these workers were terminated or resigned, eight continued to work in the district and five statuses are unknown, Jeffco Kids First said.

“There are serious hiring problems. They pass on employees, they do not fire them. They don’t report them appropriately to CDE (Colorado Department of Education),” Datko said.

Datko pointed to the case in which a teacher allegedly had issues and was suspended throughout 14 years. She claimed that he eventually resigned, but his resignation wasn’t reported to CDE for two months. She also said his teaching license is still active. 

Chief of Schools

The Chief of Schools for the district, David Weiss, was terminated Dec. 19, 2024. At the time, both the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Jeffco Public Schools did not mention a criminal investigation had begun.

Days later, the sheriff’s office noted that it was conducting an investigation into Weiss that involved possession of child sexual assault material. 

Weiss later shot and killed himself while in Washington County, Md., on Jan. 1, 2025, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Maryland.

Despite the death, the investigation into Weiss will continue, with information still being suppressed by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Former Jeffco chief of schools found dead amid criminal investigation

“Processing forensic evidence is a very long, complicated thing and our investigators are still waiting on the results from some of the evidence they had to outsource for processing,” sheriff’s office spokesperson Karlyn Tilley told The Denver Gazette on March 27. “We want to do a thorough job with the investigation because our commitment is to any potential victims that may be out there.”

“We want the Jeffco community to know how seriously we are taking this issue and how appalled we are at the alleged crime,” Jeffco Board of Education President Mary Parker wrote in a letter Jan. 21.

She said a retreat with the school board “provided us with the opportunity to publicly affirm that any crime against a child is inexcusable and to assure the community that we are actively engaged and collaborating both with Superintendent Dorland and our community on a path forward.”