A STEM school in Colorado where shots were fired did not have a sheriff's officer because of a previous dispute

May 11, 2019, 20:43 UTC

By Nicole Acevedo

Colorado's STEM school, where a shootout killed one student this week and eight injured, has no resource officer after a dispute with the county sheriff's office last year.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Colorado, a suburb of Denver, has issued documents proving that he had not renewed his contract with the school last year. as a result of a dispute over the role of the Designated Deputy Minister.

Sheriff Tony Spurlock "did not think STEM School could meet the requirements of the agreement" about the resource officer, he said in a statement on Friday.

STEM School Highlands Ranch, an à la carte school with 1,850 elementary school students at the end of high school, said schools with resource managers had unfortunately also suffered violence.

The school has been associated with the county sheriff's office from 2013 to 2018 to have a resource officer (SRO), says the school's statement. "This partnership was excellent from our point of view, but we started having problems with the SRO that we received in 2018."

After the conflict, the school still had a sheriff's non-commissioned officer who worked part-time every day with a squad car in addition to full-time private security, the statement said.

"This combination has enabled us to significantly increase the protection of our staff and students," the statement said. "The misfortune is that schools with and without SRO have been victims of violence."

The sheriff's office documents show that when there was a resource officer at the school, his duties included providing advice on law enforcement issues, investigating on public safety issues and to "serve as first responder as needed".

Records show that the officer assigned in 2018 fell ill. In some cases, the sheriff's department has provided a substitute officer to replace during the last school year.

According to the sheriff's office documents, the school's dissatisfaction with the situation seemed to increase after it began receiving complaints from neighboring businesses about the traffic and long lines of traffic around its building.

The school expected the resource officer to help the traffic and get upset when the sheriff's office asked the assistant to prioritize other duties. This eventually led the school to send a letter to the sheriff asking for a partial refund.

The sheriff agreed in writing to waive certain fees but said: "It seems we do not share a common understanding of the role our school resource officers play in educating the youth of our community and protecting the children. our schools. "

Student Kendrick Castillo died in Tuesday's shooting after, along with other classmates, rushed one of the two shooters. The two suspects in the violence are scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

The private security guard hired by the school was credited with placing one of the suspects in custody during the shooting, reports KUSA, an affiliate of NBC. The investigation also seeks to find out if the private guard shot at a sheriff's officer who responded to the call,