Like many school boards, the Denver School Board years ago asked the police for help in quelling violence in the schools. The police succeeded to some extent.
So far, so good, though it’s a poor reflection on our society, our schools, our students, and their parents. In 1975, about 1% of schools had cops onsite. By a few years ago, it was over 50%.
The presence of cops did help. But the Denver School Board was disappointed that the encounters by the school police involved a disproportionate number of students of color.
That was no surprise to anyone paying attention to crime statistics. A disproportionate number of police encounters in society at large involve people of color, and so it’s natural that it would be the same in the schools.
All serious observers know that’s because a disproportionate number of crimes are committed by people of color. You can debate the reasons for that fact – you can even claim it’s all because of systemic racism, I suppose – but you cannot debate the fact itself. For example, it has been well documented that Black people commit murder at roughly seven-times the rate of white people. Most people murdered by Blacks are themselves Black.
The response of the Denver School Board was not to focus on the message that a disproportionate number of violent crimes are by students of color, but to shoot the messenger – the police. In a unanimous vote, they expelled the police from their schools in 2020 after a thuggy druggy Black person named Floyd was killed while resisting arrest far away in Minneapolis.
The implication was that all the cops in Denver schools, like the individual Minneapolis cop who killed Floyd, were targeting Blacks. Even the Black cops.
The school board’s shooting of the messenger failed to extirpate the message, however. Violence in Denver schools returned with a vengeance.
It culminated last week at East High, barely a mile from my downtown Denver flat. A student with a history of violence and illegal firearm possession was identified as a risk. The school administrators decided he had to be patted down to check for guns each morning when he appeared at school. Pause to consider whether a person that is such a risk that he needs a concealed weapon pat-down every morning should be in school even after the pat-down.
There were no longer any trained police officers onsite to conduct the pat-down of this “risk” individual, since, unlike him, they had been expelled. The school therefore assigned the job to two admin types. One held the title of “Dean of Culture” and the other held the title of “Restorative Practices Coordinator.”
I doubt these admins had attended Police Academy to learn the proper and safe procedure for patting down a person suspected of carrying a concealed firearm, and I doubt they themselves carried a firearm with which to defend themselves. But they did get a paycheck at taxpayer expense for being cultural and restorative.
The result was predictable to anyone not wishfully woke. As the admins conducted their amateur pat-down, they discovered the perp’s gun. He drew it and shot them both.
Both survived, thankfully. The perp did not. He fled to the mountains outside Denver and blew his brains out. The outcome was tragic for the three of them, but could have been much worse. The perp might have rampaged through the school.
Ironically, the shooter and one of the two wounded admins were Black. The Denver School Board’s slanderous suggestion that the local cops are racist thus made them feel virtuous, but at the cost of one Black death, the wounding of another Black, the wounding of a white, and the endangerment of thousands of students, teachers, and local residents of all colors.
Now the school board has voted – unanimously again – to send the police back into the schools. I’ll give them credit for perhaps learning a lesson, at least for a while. It’s a shame it took this.
Expect a lawsuit by the parents of the dead kid, by the two admins, and by students and parents of East High. After all, the school district superintendent and the mayor have already made their case for them. In yet another exercise in feel-goodery, the superintendent publicly stated that they had “failed” the dead kid, and the mayor publicly stated that the earlier expulsion of the cops was a “mistake.”
In view of those public admissions – ones that were accurate but unnecessary – the case is over except the computation of monetary damages to be paid to the plaintiffs by the school district – i.e., you and me. It will be in the millions.
These people repeatedly sacrifice public welfare and lives on the altar of their personal feel-goodery. That lesson is one they’ll never learn, because they don’t want to. All they want is their feel-goodery, at any cost.
Watch for my book to be published April 18, titled “High Attitude – How Woke Liberals Ruined Aspen.”
the Aspen beat 
Feelings over facts. Fantasy over reality. Nonsense over common sense. We live in stupid world.
Substitute ‘liberal’ for stupid and you are right on target.
Off this article goes to my few libtard acquaintences! They, of course, will never learn, and, as you stated, cannot even begin to discuss the facts in any meaningful manner. My only gripe: WHY capitalize the word black, if you don’t capitalize any other color?
To answer your question, George: The style manuals do it that way. The reason is apparently that Blacks want a capital “B”. I’m not aware of a ton of whites who are clamoring for a capital “W.” I know I’m not. I have bigger fish to fry.
I think the practice is symptomatic of something: blacks get respect, while whites don’t.
That’s a pretty big fish.
And the style manuals are politically correct on stuff like this. So I’d ignore them.
Glenn: I capitalize NOTHING, and, unless I am called an Austro-Hungarian German American, I refuse to designate any other ridiculous hyphenated form of citizenry! Must be a racist!
Hi Glenn. For more clarity about the incompetence and overall failure of the Denver public schools please read the recently released book ( Amazon) Hard knocks and Dirty socks written by 42 year veteran DPS coach and teacher Steve Finesilver. He also attended DPS schools and graduated from GW.
Sincerely Mike Finesilver
Hi Glenn,
Thanks for the article. Are you aware of the active shooter drills this summer that pretty much all Colorado schools were performing? Or the past three weeks that following an active shooter drill on a Tuesday; Wednesday sheriff/police in Pitkin County were sent to Aspen schools due to calls that 16 or more schools were on high alert?
I am of the opinion be careful for what you project it will come back to you…..it is a difficult line to discern what is real and what is feared/faked for a further agenda.
I also find it so crazy that someone who carries a gun wielding power to run off after shooting two people;thank God they are ok…to off himself? Clearly, he had something to hide; perhaps he was the perpetrator in promoting fear and loathing in Colorado???? Your thoughts?
Once again, it’s salient to note that everyone in authority passes up what many of the rest of us see as the more relevant question: Why was an individual with a well-documented history of violence and illegal firearm possession allowed to attend a public school in the first place?
You’d think that the unknown threats to the well being of children would be bad enough without acquiescing to the presence of known threats.
Obviously a rhetorical question there…as everyone knows very well, had these criminals been white, hetero males they would have been banned immediately with no second chance. Blacks get chance after chance until this type of thing happens and then those that allowed it just go and hide behind union privilege’s and then they intentionally do it again when things cool down. This is why government education by leftist unionized ‘teachers’ is not fixable, and should be shut down everywhere.
School system needs to open gun ranges and teach our youth freedom and the responsibility that goes with it. That is the best safety-net for our families, communities, and nation.
A disproportionate number of crimes are indeed committed by people of color, against other people of color.
Perhaps those people of color who are victims of the people of color committing crimes should just refrain from calling 911 every time they are victimized. (Snark!)
Then those “racist” cops, many of whom are people of color themselves, would not facilitate the conveyor belt driven mass incarceration of people of color into our so called “racist” prisons. (More … Snark!)
At least … this is what all of those woke, white, well-to-do leftists in gated communities contend.
See? Being woke and white means never having to apologize for your destructive policies and for your big contribution to society’s chaos and downfall.
The shot and wounded “Dean of Culture” and “Restorative Practices Coordinator” sound a lot like the unarmed social workers that the leftist political class out here in the Peoples’ Republic of California want to send to 911 calls, instead of well trained and seasoned sworn law enforcement officers.
The late, great U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once famously said:
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
Perhaps a just as true corollary to the Iron Maiden’s keen observation is another big problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s lives.
“Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.”
― George Santayana, The Life of Reason: Five Volumes in One
A lot missing here. If the SROs (School Resource Officers) are city police or county sheriffs they are assigned there and don’t work for the school or district – they work for the city or county. If the principal is a moron – which many are – they don’t work well with that. They try to order the officers around or get the officers to handle discipline issues. Not their purview. Can cause tension in many ways.
Officers are there for some possible counseling or interaction with students – as they see fit. They are there for security, if there is an severe issue. They are not there for pat downs of students or adults – staff or visitors – unless they are attempting to dissuade or stop a criminal act.
If they get involved in other aspects they lose focus on security against serious threats AND put themselves and their government office at risk of frivolous lawsuits from someone who got offended.
Although they seem quite close at times these days, school and the streets still are different entities with different sets of management and practices. I enjoy having the officers at my school and trust them completely. They are all great guys. They have to ignore a lot of the antics of students because if they get involved, students, without contemplating their actions, can quickly cross lines and violate conduct laws. Our SROs don’t want those interactions and should not have to deal with them.
When it comes to law enforcement, Juvenile Court is a revolving door. If an officer takes a student there, the student is often exiting with a parent or guardian before the officer finishes their required paperwork and the officer watches them walk out for some court date a couple of months away. Depending on the violation, the student could be back at school the following day or within the week.
School disciplinary policies are failing our communities. Broken families with parents who hand a child a screen rather than have to deal with them are failing our communities. Teacher’s unions and many of their members are failing our communities. School boards posing as woke to pat each other on the back are failing our communities. A lot of failing going on here, there and everywhere – except at the end of a term – when every child passes and gets a participation ribbon.
I agree that this now deceased so-called “student” shouldn’t have even been in that school. Leftist “Feel-goodery” has caused this tragedy but, of course, these idiots will NOT learn anything from this, in the long run. I call it “don’t confuse me with the facts, I know what I know.”
Denver’s East High School has 2500+ students. That’s the first problem. No school should have more than 700 kids and it’s better to go under 500. Might cost more, but it’s worth it.
Second problem: I went to their school home page and noticed a big banner link that announced: “Click here to learn more about East’s Equitable Grading Practices.” I followed the link and I learned that, among other things: “East assigns grades based on student work, not the timing of work. Flexible due dates with eventual hard deadlines.” I guess upfront deadlines are racist, or something.
Third, the next big link took me to a place to learn all about LGBQT+ resources. You have to see it for yourself. https://east.dpsk12.org/support-for-ablanqqt-at-ehs-and-the-metro-area-2022-2023/
Fourth problem. They are the East High Angels. Hmmmmmmm.
BTW, I retired from teaching with 30+ years experience which included a short stint in an inner city middle school in Kansas City, MO.
when teens start doing hard time for murder and mayors quit lying then things will change and not before. Denver is now a big city, big cities tend to have more and worse social problems including street and school violence than small cities and towns. Schools need to use suspensions and expulsions when and where appropriate and states need to abolish compulsory education, and parents need to attend those PTA meetings and not shine it on. If junior is acting like a little street hooligan then he needs to go on a field trip to the county jail to meet his future social peers and learn first-hand about that path in life, which can lead to prison, and can lead to death. Gangs are a real thing, they recruit young people, they exert social influence, they are basically street crime armies, and young people black or otherwise need to be made to understand that education is a ladder up out of that life, a life that is short, brutal, and has claimed the lives of far too many young men in our country today. Up or down, its a choice.
93 percent of black murders are committed by blacks . ~ Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young..
San Francisco transit will not release crime videos because it might people racist.
Am I alone in feeling that something more than stupidity and feel-goodery is present here? It all seems so perverse, so “malignant” for lack of another word. Is anyone’s welfare being served by these policies?
I’ve known these people. A few — but only a few — are set on destroying America. But nearly all are not.
Instead, nearly all are well-intentioned naive people who are incapable or unwilling to undertake real analysis until it’s unavoidable — like when people get shot. Because their primary goal is simply to feel good about themselves. They foolishly think that whatever policy makes them FEEL good must BE good, and anyone criticizing that feel-good is ipso fact criticizing good — and the criticizing person is therefore bad and is worthy of being name-called such things as “racist” etc.
There’s a certain amount of that on the Right as well, but far less.
Agreed. But it is the few whom I recoil from — “the rulers of the darkness in this world,” “that hold this dark world in bondage.” I refer to the many mayors and governors around the country whose policies surpass all understanding, and to the Soroses who control their puppet strings. How is it that the well-intentioned and naive among us are so blind to, or perversely passive in the presence of, the conspicuous evidence of our ruined neighborhoods and brutalized, warped children?
“Wishfully Woke” is probably the best term I’ve for these virtue-signalling authoritarian types who perpetually plague us with their inept do-goodery and faux insight into the human psyche.
They annoy me so. Can you tell?