DENVER (KDVR) — The school resource officer assigned to Evergreen High School was not there at the time of the shooting earlier this month, raising questions about their whereabouts throughout the community.
After the shooting on Wednesday, Sept. 10, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said during a press conference that the officer assigned to the school had left about two hours before shots were fired.
Evergreen High School previously had a full-time School Resource Officer; however, that officer has been on medical leave, and the responsibility was being shared between other deputies.
On Monday, the sheriff’s office released more information about the officer’s whereabouts that day.
On Sept. 10, the SRO was going between Evergreen and Conifer High School, about 9 miles apart. The sheriff’s office said the SRO’s main assignment is Conifer, but he was covering both schools due to the Evergreen SRO being on medical leave.
The SRO started at Conifer that morning and went to Evergreen and stayed for about an hour and a half before he headed back to Conifer.
Then, about 15 minutes before the first call about shots fired at Evergreen, he was dispatched to assist with a rollover crash involving a single dump truck and an injured driver.
The sheriff’s office said that the 911 calls came flooding in about the shooting at 12:24 p.m.
“It is standard practice for SROs to respond to other events if they are among the closest to respond,” the sheriff’s office noted.
Last week, the sheriff’s office said that it would have a full-time SRO assigned to Evergreen High School as students return to campus this week.
Intergovernmental Agreements between the sheriff’s office and school district state that the sheriff’s office “may, from time to time, and at its sole discretion, reassign its employees and designate one or more replacement SROs or SRO Supervisors at any time.”
In the agreement, 14 SROs are designated to 12 different schools in Jeffco Public Schools, which includes Evergreen High School, “as staffing allows.” The sheriff’s office said its goal is to have at least one in every middle and high school.
“We know that many communities across the nation are facing a shortage of law enforcement personnel and budget constraints, and we are not immune to these challenges,” said JCSO Sheriff Reggie Marinelli said in a statement last week. “Our shared goal has always been to have at least one full-time SRO in every middle and high school, which requires substantial financial support and a sufficient number of qualified deputies. No doubt there is a need — we have been and continue to work together to strategically staff these critical positions. We will remain committed to hiring the very best deputies for our agency and our community. I remain steadfast in fighting for the funding our students deserve.”
During a Parent-Teachers-Students Association meeting less than 24 hours before the shooting, parents raised questions about why Evergreen HS did not have a full-time school resource officer. According to PTSA President Cindy Mazeika and the school’s website, the school principal told families the mountain schools had been “deprioritized,” and that a single SRO was shared across several campuses due to limited resources.
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