Denver Public Schools investigates school violence threat

LITTLETON, Colo.,- Parents at Grant Ranch School in Littleton are on edge after Denver Public Schools leaders said they are investigating a threat made by a student there on Friday.

“We reported that to DPD. DPD goes out and starts an investigation process to include meeting with parents, doing research, making sure the student doesn’t have access to weapons, things like that -- and then reports back,” said Michael Eaton, the Chief of the Department of Safety for Denver Public Schools.

A student was talking to another student about their intention to threaten someone or the school Friday afternoon when another student overheard them and told a teacher, Eaton said.

The student was pulled from class and investigated for making the threat, according to Eaton.

The student hasn’t been back at school since, as disciplinary action is being taken, a district representative said.

Parents like Kristy Ford said they’re uneasy because they aren’t being told details of the threat.

“I'm very concerned because I'm dropping off my 6-year-old daughter at this school; I don't know if she's going to be safe,” she said.

Eaton said this kind of threat isn’t out of the ordinary for the district.

Denver7 requested school threat records for this current school year and found that of the 123 days of school, 105 threats like this have been investigated.

That’s nearly one a day.

The district investigates each one of them very closely and thank students for stepping up and saying something, Eaton said.

“I really applaud the students for stepping up and saying something. It’s see something say something, so we have a chance, for one, to not only mitigate a potential threat, but this individual is also one of our students. We need to make sure that we are providing all of our students with resources, and specifically students that may be in crisis,” he said.

While Eaton is confident the district has a very strong policy and practice in place to investigate these threats, parents like Ford aren’t so sure.

“You hear so many stories about, well the cops knew, the cops had tips and then people end up dead, so I want to make sure that us as parents, that we get the answers we want as to what kind of threat was made at the school or towards the students,” said Ford.

The district said the student hasn’t been allowed to return to school at Grant Ranch since the incident.