The Denver school board could vote as early as Monday on whether to rescind or reaffirm its 2020 policy prohibiting armed police in schools, potentially paving the way for officers to return to campuses long-term.
Denver Public Schools’ Board of Education met Thursday to discuss two proposals that, if passed, would change that policy. But during the conversation, members raised the possibility of only voting on whether or not they should rescind the 2020 resolution that bars school resource officers, or SROs, from campuses.
Rescinding the policy would open the door for Superintendent Alex Marrero to station SROs in schools without the board needing to craft a new policy, board member Michelle Quattlebaum argued, saying she does not support having police on campuses.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion that SROs are going to come back into the schools until we take a vote that we want to remove (the policy),” Quattlebaum told her colleagues, adding, “Do we want to remove (the policy)? Take it out if we’re going to strike it. That’s the question.”
Board members discussed potentially voting on Monday when they have an already-scheduled meeting to hear comments from the public. They won’t decide until Friday whether to call a special meeting on Monday, which would allow them to take such a vote.
The board is revisiting its policy on SROs following the March shooting at East High School in which two administrators were injured. Board members temporarily suspended the policy after the shooting, and Denver police officers were stationed in high schools for the remainder of this school year.
But the 2020 policy is set to resume later this month unless directors decide otherwise.
Marrero is also crafting a districtwide safety plan, and he expects to release his final version later this month. In his latest draft, the superintendent has recommended that the board set a districtwide policy on whether to staff high schools and combined middle and high schools with SROs.
But Marrero also said at the meeting that he is “pretty sure” he will recommend SROs come back in some capacity — although it depends on what the board decides.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said in a statement that the department “will comply” with whatever the district decides to do.
“The clear preference of the Denver Police Department is for full-time school resource officers in all comprehensive DPS high schools,” he said.
The school board met on Thursday to discuss — but not vote on — two proposals by members to change the policy. One plan would allow school resource officers on campuses; the other proposal would not.
Scott Baldermann, who was on the board when it voted to remove SROs three years ago, has proposed changing the current policy to allow armed police back into schools.
Under Baldermann’s plan, the superintendent would get to decide when to station police officers in schools, but it also set guidelines on how SROs should operate on campuses, such as they wouldn’t be able to discipline children or store guns in schools.
On Thursday, Baldermann said that if his colleagues wanted to just fully eliminate the 2020 policy, he would support such a move. He has cited the rise in weapons being found on DPS campuses as a reason to reinstate SROs.
“The reality is… we’re seeing a substantial uptick in the number of weapons showing up at schools,” Baldermann said.
As of late March, DPS had reported finding 14 guns and 22 fake guns on campuses during the 2022-23 academic year, an increase from two real guns and nine fake guns found at Denver schools five years ago.
But other board members have said they do not support having SROs in schools at all, including Quattlebaum and board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson.
Both of the directors, along with board member Scott Esserman, proposed a different plan that would still prohibit SROs but would have the district form an agreement with the Denver Police Department to have community resource officers respond when needed.
The community resource officers wouldn’t be stationed in schools, but rather assigned to regions across the district.
Anderson, who was one of the leaders of the effort to remove police from schools in 2020, said he supported keeping the original policy in place. However, he said, his proposal to rely on community resource officers offered another option for the board.
Anderson urged the board to take a vote on the initial policy on Monday, saying, “Either we support cops coming to schools or we don’t support cops coming to schools.”
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