A year later in Colorado, Jeffco teachers union builds protections following Evergreen High shooting

One year after a shooting at Evergreen High School, the union representing roughly 5,000 Jefferson County teachers has new contract language designed to protect educators who live through school violence.

The Jefferson County Education Association bargained the provisions after Evergreen became the district's third school shooting, following Columbine High School in 1999 and Deer Creek Middle School in 2010.

JCEA President Ang Anderson began teaching the year of the Columbine tragedy.

"So it's kind of shaped my whole career, knowing that this is something that we might face as educators," Anderson said.

In the immediate aftermath of the Evergreen shooting, the union and district reached a temporary agreement that gave additional sick days to Evergreen staff and to teachers whose children attended the school. Anderson praised the district's response, saying officials "brought in all these wonderful resources."

But she said a temporary fix wasn't enough.

"What we sadly came to the conclusion of is we needed something that was more permanent for when this might happen again," Anderson said.

The new, permanent agreement guarantees teachers affected by school violence the opportunity to step away when trauma resurfaces, with more medical leave, and the possibility of transfers between schools if needed.

"We did negotiate those educators to have additional time off so that they could attend appointments, or just time to heal," Anderson said.

The union based the provisions on lessons from educators who've survived school shootings across the country. They told JCEA that trauma can be unpredictable.

"Sometimes, what we learned, is it doesn't hit educators right away. It might be months, it might be on the anniversary," Anderson said.

JCEA has offered to share the agreement with teachers unions nationally.

"At least now we have a plan, and it's very sad that we need a plan," Anderson said. "I hope we never have to use it, but we have it."

The new provisions in the Jeffco teachers collective bargaining agreement, Article 26 on Post Incident Response, can be seen here.