JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. — Evergreen High School will have a full-time school resource officer in the wake of last week’s shooting, deputies with the sheriff’s office confirmed with Denver7 Monday.
Concerns about the lack of a full-time school resource officer (SRO) on campus were raised twice prior to the shooting during PTA meetings on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, hours before a 16-year-old boy opened fire at Evergreen High, injuring two of his classmates. The shooter sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and died of his injuries that same day.
A day after the shooting, deputies with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said the school had a full-time SRO, but they were on medical leave at the time of the shooting. To fill in the gap, Evergreen High has been utilizing part-time SROs.
“We have a couple of part-time SROs that share this school right now. There was no one from the SRO unit at the school when the shooting started,” Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said on Thursday. “He was there until about 10:30, 10:45, and then he was dispatched out here for an accident.”
Speaking to Denver7’s Adria Iraheta last week, Evergreen High School PTA president Cindy Mazeika said they learned about the SRO change during Tuesday's meeting, in which those concerns were brought up to the school's principal.
“[Jeffco Public Schools] decided that the mountain community is a low-chance incident in place, and that we were being deprioritized with funding, and that we will have a shared resource officer through all of the schools in the mountain community,” Mazeika said.
But that changed Monday, when another spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told Denver7 in an email that they could confirm Evergreen High School will have a full-time SRO “going forward.”
Classes at Evergreen High School remain canceled through this week following last week's shooting. It's not known when they will resume, though a letter sent to EHS parents and students on Sunday said by the end of this upcoming weekend, the school's principal "will release a video message sharing details about the plan to return to school."
In the letter, school leaders also promised a full-time, armed JeffCo security officer and dedicated patrols in the area. The letter said all students will be sent a survey on Wednesday to help the school plan for their return to classes.
Evergreen
Community holds healing space for Evergreen High School students
Monday evening in Evergreen, local faith leaders organized a vigil for community members.
"I think this is a time when the community wants to come together and feels a need to be together," said Rev. Sarah Clark with the United Methodist Church in Evergreen. "To pray together, to hug one another, and just to be community."
"This is a very tightly-knit community, and we are leaning on and supporting each other in beautiful ways," added Pastor Terry Schjang of Evergreen Lutheran Church.
Beth Lincoln, an Evergreen resident for more than 40 years, told Denver7 that Monday's gathering was about "coming together to show our love and comfort for each other."
"This gathering is what our community is about," she said. "Not what happened [last week]."
The two victims in the shooting remain hospitalized in serious and critical conditions, according to hospital officials.
Authorities are still investigating the shooter’s motive, but said investigators have determined the gunman had been “radicalized by some extremist network.” The FBI was investigating the social media accounts connected to the 16-year-old two months before the attack, a spokesperson with the federal agency confirmed with Denver7.
In the aftermath of the shooting, officials from Aurora Public Schools told Denver7 they plan to analyze safety protocols throughout the district.
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