East had been the scene of two shootings last school year: In February, sixteen-year-old Luis Garcia was shot inside his car just off school grounds; and in March, student Austin Lyle shot two deans at the school.
Now those concerned students are back on campus with a new safety plan in place and a sharper focus on how to fix things — but their fears still remain.
"I'm glad that they're taking some steps [to address safety], but I still won't feel safe until things are done [about] the root cause of guns," says East junior Caden Fiala.
"Since [DPS] is one of the largest districts in the country and the largest district in the state — not to mention this district is where the Capitol building is — that alone should make the district one of the largest bodies [pushing] for change," adds fellow junior Becket Nelson-Gardner, who is a member of East's chapter of Students Demand Action, a national student-led organization pushing for an end to gun violence.
"Where that change happens is the state level," Nelson-Gardner says. "And so we want to see the district put real [effort] into telling, forcing, requesting each and every member of the Capitol building to do something about the problem, because there's only so much you can do about a school shooting where guns are coming from the community, not the school."
After Garcia was shot and fatally wounded in his car on February 13, activists from East's SDA immediately began pushing for change at all levels of local government. Members attended a February 21 city council meeting, where then-senior Zeke Lubin told councilmembers, "We're scared."
The students specifically called for stricter gun control, red flag warnings and safe-storage techniques to keep guns out of the hands of young people, as well as immediate safety efforts to address school security concerns in the meantime. One piece of legislation aimed at this — Senate Bill 23-169 — raises the minimum age to purchase a firearm from eighteen to 21 in Colorado. Although it was signed into law on April 28, it was blocked by a federal judge the day before it was set to go into effect, pending the resolution of a lawsuit filed by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners group against Governor Jared Polis to stop the legislation.
As students at East pushed urgently for safety measures in the wake of Garcia's death, which is still under investigation, the topic of security turned into a conversation about bringing back school resource officers, or SROs, after they were removed in 2020 amid racial justice protests surrounding the killing of George Floyd.
Denver School Board Vice President Auon'tai Anderson was adamant at the time that there was “not a scenario" where the board would "entertain the reinstatement of school resource officers." He pitted the responsibility of school safety on the legislature, calling it a gun violence issue related to "Denver and Colorado and United States" as a whole.
Student activists at East cautiously discussed the idea of reintroducing SROs, with then-junior Olivia Nusbaum saying, “The main thing is just getting student input if we do put that in place.”
But then, on March 22, just hours after Austin Lyle shot and injured two East deans — before later committing suicide — DPS Superintendent Alex Marerro announced that SROs would be placed back on campus.
The shooting had ignited the urgency of parents and politicians, with groups like Resign DPS calling for the entire school board to step down and groups like Parents - Safety Advocacy Group capturing weekly media coverage at their press conferences.
The school board directed Superintendent Marrero to create the safety plan. The final draft was released on June 30. Its main impact: the reintroduction of SROs.
Armed officers will be stationed at thirteen DPS high schools on the first day of school, according to the Denver Police Department. They will be the same thirteen that were placed in schools earlier this year after the Lyle incident, and will be paid for by the DPD.
"Chief Thomas has committed to providing the SROs without reimbursement from DPS for the upcoming school year because he firmly believes that the SRO program increases school and student safety and helps to encourage better youth/police relationships," says DPD spokesperson Doug Schepman.
SDA doesn't have a position on SROs, according to member and East junior Noah Shurz, who spoke on behalf of the local chapter of the organization. Besides having cops in schools, "The safety plan is long, it's boring and it's extensive, but it's not substantial," says Nelson-Gardner. "It's a lot of stuff that's either already in place or stuff that schools are already doing individually."
One example Nelson-Gardner cites is the social and emotional learning priorities that the safety plan outlines, which he, Shurz and Fiola all say was something that was already in place — and has only been slightly altered.
The students also take issue with how the plan intends to "continue to monitor what is the best thing to do," in regard to security features like panic buttons or weapon detection features, according to Shurz.
For example, one section of the plan reads: "The District is in the process of evaluating and enhancing communication protocols to include crisis management systems, notifications, Incident Activation and Management Platforms including panic buttons for school staff."
The students, who say they learned of the March 22 shooting from the DPD Twitter account rather than from the district, would prefer a more urgent approach. "It's good that they're evaluating stuff, because each individual school has [its own] individual problems and needs an individual solution to go with that, ... [but] implementing the thing, and then studying it, rather than studying it for each school and then implementing" might be helpful, says Nelson-Gardner. "It's saddening that everyone sees the safety plan and gets off the district's back a little bit."
The SDA plans to keep holding DPS accountable for things that are in the safety plan, Shurz says, and he hopes that leaders will pay attention.
"We are students," Shurz says. "We understand that we shouldn't know everything, but we do deserve some say in what goes on in the buildings that we are in every day."
As students at East pushed urgently for safety measures in the wake of Garcia's death, which is still under investigation, the topic of security turned into a conversation about bringing back school resource officers, or SROs, after they were removed in 2020 amid racial justice protests surrounding the killing of George Floyd.
Denver School Board Vice President Auon'tai Anderson was adamant at the time that there was “not a scenario" where the board would "entertain the reinstatement of school resource officers." He pitted the responsibility of school safety on the legislature, calling it a gun violence issue related to "Denver and Colorado and United States" as a whole.
Student activists at East cautiously discussed the idea of reintroducing SROs, with then-junior Olivia Nusbaum saying, “The main thing is just getting student input if we do put that in place.”
But then, on March 22, just hours after Austin Lyle shot and injured two East deans — before later committing suicide — DPS Superintendent Alex Marerro announced that SROs would be placed back on campus.
The shooting had ignited the urgency of parents and politicians, with groups like Resign DPS calling for the entire school board to step down and groups like Parents - Safety Advocacy Group capturing weekly media coverage at their press conferences.
The school board directed Superintendent Marrero to create the safety plan. The final draft was released on June 30. Its main impact: the reintroduction of SROs.
Armed officers will be stationed at thirteen DPS high schools on the first day of school, according to the Denver Police Department. They will be the same thirteen that were placed in schools earlier this year after the Lyle incident, and will be paid for by the DPD.
"Chief Thomas has committed to providing the SROs without reimbursement from DPS for the upcoming school year because he firmly believes that the SRO program increases school and student safety and helps to encourage better youth/police relationships," says DPD spokesperson Doug Schepman.
SDA doesn't have a position on SROs, according to member and East junior Noah Shurz, who spoke on behalf of the local chapter of the organization. Besides having cops in schools, "The safety plan is long, it's boring and it's extensive, but it's not substantial," says Nelson-Gardner. "It's a lot of stuff that's either already in place or stuff that schools are already doing individually."
One example Nelson-Gardner cites is the social and emotional learning priorities that the safety plan outlines, which he, Shurz and Fiola all say was something that was already in place — and has only been slightly altered.
The students also take issue with how the plan intends to "continue to monitor what is the best thing to do," in regard to security features like panic buttons or weapon detection features, according to Shurz.
For example, one section of the plan reads: "The District is in the process of evaluating and enhancing communication protocols to include crisis management systems, notifications, Incident Activation and Management Platforms including panic buttons for school staff."
The students, who say they learned of the March 22 shooting from the DPD Twitter account rather than from the district, would prefer a more urgent approach. "It's good that they're evaluating stuff, because each individual school has [its own] individual problems and needs an individual solution to go with that, ... [but] implementing the thing, and then studying it, rather than studying it for each school and then implementing" might be helpful, says Nelson-Gardner. "It's saddening that everyone sees the safety plan and gets off the district's back a little bit."
The SDA plans to keep holding DPS accountable for things that are in the safety plan, Shurz says, and he hopes that leaders will pay attention.
"We are students," Shurz says. "We understand that we shouldn't know everything, but we do deserve some say in what goes on in the buildings that we are in every day."
