Two Evergreen Excessive College dad or mum teams raised considerations concerning the availability of college useful resource officers within the hours earlier than Wednesday’s capturing that critically wounded two highschool college students, dad and mom stated Friday.
At a Tuesday night time assembly of the Evergreen Excessive College Mum or dad Trainer Scholar Affiliation, a dad or mum questioned why Evergreen Excessive didn’t have a brand new faculty useful resource officer to switch its earlier officer, who had been away on medical depart for almost a yr. The college’s principal defined that Jeffco Public Faculties had “deprioritized” SROs for its mountain colleges, which might share officers between them, stated Cindy Mazeika, the PTSA’s president.
One dad or mum requested explicitly what would occur if there have been a capturing on the faculty.
“We as dad and mom didn’t find out about this till any individual requested about it on the open ground on the finish of the PTA assembly on Tuesday night time,” Mazieka stated.
Jacki Kelley, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Workplace, instructed reporters Thursday {that a} faculty useful resource officer was not on the faculty when 16-year-old Desmond Holly began firing his gun, critically wounding two college students earlier than he fatally shot himself. Deputies arrived on the scene minutes after the capturing started, Kelley stated.
The college’s full-time deputy was on medical depart, Kelley stated, and the hole has been crammed by a number of part-time officers. The deputy assigned to the varsity that morning was dispatched to a close-by accident, which Kelley stated was routine and didn’t violate departmental coverage.
In an e-mail Friday, spokespeople for the varsity district didn’t straight reply to questions concerning the dad or mum teams’ considerations. The district wrote that an SRO was assigned to the highschool, but it surely directed different inquiries to the sheriff’s workplace, together with how project choices are made.
Spokespeople for the sheriff’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail looking for remark Friday afternoon.
Within the district’s contract with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Workplace, the company agreed to offer faculty useful resource officers to a dozen county colleges, together with Evergreen Excessive, “as staffing permits.” The district has contracts with varied cities to offer SROs at its different colleges.
The dad and mom’ considerations come because the district adjusts to straight paying for the officers. In April, the district discovered that it must start paying for 50% of the fee for the officers in the course of the 2025-2026 faculty yr, in line with an April finances presentation. That meant a further $2.2 million in district funding, which was supplied within the finances.
In its assertion, the district stated its SRO program “is a degree of pleasure for our district, and we stay dedicated to sustaining it.” In survey knowledge offered to the Jeffco faculty board in June, a majority of households, workers and college students reported feeling secure on the district’s colleges.
On Wednesday morning, shortly earlier than the capturing started at the highschool, Evergreen Center College dad and mom additionally raised considerations about SRO staffing, stated Sarah Aller, the top of that faculty’s PTA. In lieu of an SRO, workers on the center faculty bought new walkie-talkies for college personnel to speak, Aller stated. The PTA used $12,000 of its personal funds to cowl the acquisition.
Madison Mihalik, a senior at Evergreen Excessive, stated she emailed the district’s superintendent in September 2024 after not less than one empty shell casing was present in a faculty stairwell. In her 2024 e-mail, which she supplied to The Put up, she wrote that the varsity had been focused by a menace the day earlier than the bullet was discovered and that she felt unsafe
The district and the sheriff’s workplace didn’t reply to questions concerning the bullet incident, which each Mazieka and Aller additionally recalled.
Mihalik stated the varsity usually had an SRO current throughout her freshman yr, however that modified throughout her sophomore yr. In a brand new e-mail she despatched to district officers hours after the capturing, she stated she and her classmates “hardly ever have a useful resource officer at our faculty.”
“Will we not need to go to highschool feeling secure?” she wrote.
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