Former Denver East High School dean says safety issues at the school have long been a problem
A former dean at East High School says there have been safety problems at the school for years, but that recent shootings at the school this spring are putting those issues in a spotlight that's now difficult to ignore. He says he was also attacked by a student in 2015, but the district's policies have only gotten more relaxed since then.
In March, student Austin Lyle shot two deans at East High while they were conducting a pat down search on the student.
Jerald Wayne Mason, one of the victims, says the other dean who was shot that day, Eric Sinclair, was in a room alone with the student when the shooting happened, because no school security guards were answering his radio call for assistance.
"Eric said 'gun! Gun!' Austin fired off some shots, I think two or three shots, and when I grabbed Austin's arm, he turned his wrist toward me, and he fired two shots and he hit me," Mason recalled at a news conference last week. "He broke away from me, and he stood there staring at Eric and I, still pointing the gun at us. Then he ran out of the room."
CBS News Colorado has learned that wasn't the only time a dean at East High was attacked by a student alone with them in a room.
Rudy Villarreal, who was formerly the dean of students at East, says he was attacked by a student in the fall of 2015.
"I turned to the right, and he nailed me in the side," Villarreal recalled. "He punched me hard and knocked me out, and next thing I know, unbeknownst to me, he starts kicking me in the eyeball with his timberline work boots."
He says the student beat him so badly that he still has eye damage to this day.
"I had a double detached retina and through all that, I had three corneal transplants," Villarreal said. "When I look at my left eye, it's like I have a dirty contact lens and that's permanent. I lost the color of my eye, and then everything that I see, I see a wave, and that's permanent."
He says the hardest part was the lack of response from the school district. He felt parents, staff, and students had a right to know what happened to him.
"What bothered me is that it was so hush hush. No one knew about it.... Why not?" Villarreal said. "It just saddens me that it wasn't important enough that nobody called me."
He says the student involved was transferred to another school, but not criminally charged. The district would not confirm any details about the discipline of the student involved.
Villarreal was so traumatized, he ended his 36-year career in education, and he says Eric Sinclair took over his position after he left.
Since then, he feels the school district has only relaxed its policies and has opened up the doors to make schools less safe.
He feels the school should go back to transferring dangerous students more frequently to alternative, or "Pathway," schools.
"If it was a student that had similar problems, where he had weapons or drugs, and we didn't feel it was safe to let allow them to come in the building, to be in our population, we would transfer them over to an alternative school that would be able to accommodate them," Villarreal said. "I think you need to have those kinds of schools, alternative programs to show the students they can be successful, not in the big environment, but a smaller environment, more one on one... we had a lot of students that we sent over there, and they would keep in contact with me saying, 'Mr. V, this is the kind of grades I'm getting,' and I said, 'you're right on track, you're doing exactly what we want you to do,' and we would bring them back."
Villarreal is not the only person to have raised such concerns. CBS News Colorado has spoken with current staff at other schools in DPS, who have echoed similar sentiments that it is more difficult now than it was a few years ago to transfer potentially threatening students to Pathway schools.
CBS News Colorado asked DPS about those concerns. DPS says the approach for Pathway schools is different than it once was.
"The DPS Pathway schools are designed to help high school students who are behind on their credits get caught back up and on track to graduate. The students could be behind for a variety of reasons such as truancy issues, not understanding the class content and failing classes, or having poor study skills and or habits," A spokesperson for the district wrote in an email to CBS News Colorado. "This approach for our Pathway schools is different than it used to be and has been successful in helping these scholars thrive."
In April, the district's school safety coordinator told CBS News Colorado there aren't alternative schools for particularly dangerous students. To read more about what the school safety coordinator said about alternative schools last month, click here.
As for Villarreal's account, DPS provided the following statement:
"The leaders who were in place for Denver Public Schools when this incident occurred several years ago are no longer with the district, so we are not able to comment on that incident. But, student and staff safety is extremely important and our school leaders communicate often with our families when there is an incident in or near one of our schools."
