DPS security officers were at East High School when shooting happened
After the shooting at East High School on Wednesday, the Denver School Board and superintendent announced plans to bring back armed police officers at high schools in the district. Denver Public Schools has its own security force.
When a student gunman opened fire Wednesday morning, injuring two administrators at East High School, there were two unarmed Denver Public Schools security officers inside the building at the time. A third had called in sick that day.
They were not present where the shooting occurred. The officers are part of the force of 80 unarmed officers and 22 armed officers positioned in vehicles, answering calls to all schools.
Michael Eaton was Chief of the DPS force for 11 years until recently.
"I think in our comprehensive high schools when school resource officers were removed, we encountered more risk and it was my job to mitigate that," said Eaton.
Eaton is in favor of returning armed police officers to the schools, but DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero notes they may have been unable to prevent what happened on Wednesday.
"An armed officer, whether an SRO or an officer that happens to be on-site, would never have patted down that student," said Marrero.
He explained that a police officer would need probable cause to conduct a pat down. DPS students seem mixed on the issue.
"There's not much protection and anyone can bring in anything."
Another girl said, "I don't think there should be police officers in the school, no guns in the school... that's the problem, guns."
The DPS Security Dispatch Center was fairly quiet on the days after the most recent shooting. All schools in DPS, including East High School, were closed on Friday for a mental health day.
With the school board approving the return of Denver police officers to the schools, details have to be worked out on financing and staffing.
