Security Issues Continue to Plague East High School Despite Presence of SROs

Amid ongoing conversations and policy changes geared toward improving school safety and security following a string of violent incidents in and around East High School, an intruder recently managed to sneak into the school while students were present — stealing belongings from kids and even taking off with a vehicle, according to the Denver Police Department.

The incident occurred at approximately 7 p.m. on April 24, according to the DPD, when students were rehearsing for a dance performance.

A masked male suspect, who hasn't been identified, managed to slip in through a door — which had been left propped open — and swiped personal belongings from students taking part in extracurricular activities, cops say. The thief then made off with a student's vehicle using keys he'd obtained during his haul.

The stolen car was recovered the next morning in the area of South Gaylord Street and East Wesley Avenue, according to Doug Schepman, DPD's director of communications. But the investigation into the incident — and the search for the suspect — is still ongoing.

The robbery took place when East's two newly assigned school resource officers (SROs) were already off for the day, Schepman says. For safety reasons, authorities cannot share the exact schedules of when these SROs arrive at and leave the school. The armed officers were reintroduced by Denver Public Schools on April 3.

School board members had removed the SROs during a period of civil unrest in 2020 following the death of George Floyd, citing the role SROs play in the criminalization of student behavior as their rationale for the decision. However, the DPS did a complete 180 on the policy in the days after student Austin Lyle shot and wounded two of East's deans — Eric Sinclair and Jerald Mason — before eventually committing suicide on March 22.

School board vice president Auon'tai Anderson has stood by the original 2020 decision to remove the SROs. At a press conference in late March, he claimed that DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero and Mayor Michael Hancock had forced the board to approve an SRO reintroduction policy with the threat of using an executive order to usurp the school board's elected authority. The mayor's office denies that claim, however.

Although Anderson is not actively advocating for the outright removal of SROs, he has held firm in his personal position that police in schools do not contribute to greater school safety — a sentiment shared by DPD Chief Ron Thomas.

Despite that admission, Thomas does support the presence of SROs in schools. A month into their reintroduction, he says he thinks the program is going well.

"I think the officers appreciate the opportunity to be back in schools," Thomas told Westword during a gathering at the Thatcher Memorial Fountain outside of East High on May 1.

The press conference was hosted by the Parents - Safety Advocacy Group (P-SAG), which formed after the March 22 shooting in order to keep the pressure on the DPS to boost school safety. The group hosts meetings every Monday at East, including one on April 24 before the after-hours thefts occurred.

In the month that SROs have been back, they have responded to some minor threats related to the possibility of a student having a weapon, according to Thomas.

"We have had some situations where individuals were reported to have weapons in schools, and we were able to make those contacts and, more often than not, verify....that that particular student does not have a weapon," Thomas said. "So I'm glad that we are able to quickly respond and verify those things so schools don't have to go into lockdown for significant periods of time."

The April 24 burglary shows there are other gaps in school safety, however.

What may fix the issue, according to city officials, is a new DPS operational safety plan. The school board directed Marrero to create this plan on March 23; the superintendent released a first draft on May 1.

The plan recommends that individual DPS schools be able to decide whether they would like to have an SRO presence on campus, but it does not include any information about whether SROs or other DPS security should stay on school premises during after-school student activities.

Anderson has already said that he will not support the plan in its current form. He claims that the survey results on which the plan is based do not accurately represent the entire DPS community, and that the plan doesn't invest enough in mental health resources.

The plan states that with a staff of over 400 mental health professionals serving 205 schools, DPS far exceeds the "minimum expectation for school-based mental health providers," which is one "full-time employee per school." Anderson says this is "inadequate for the 90,000 students and 15,000 educators in our district."
Collinus Newsome, the sister of Jerald Mason, one of the two East High deans who was shot by Austin Lyle, spoke at the May 1 P-SAG meeting on behalf of her brother, and expressed support for increasing mental health services. During an emotional speech, she said of Lyle: "We failed him, too. He deserves our grace, our love, our kindness."

Newsome told Westword that Lyle needed increased attention and to be in a more appropriate environment than East. "This was not the right place for what he needed," she said.

Jerald Mason, Newsome's brother, plans to speak at the next P-SAG meeting at 3 p.m. on May 8.