DENVER — Denver School Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson says students charged with violent crimes including attempted murder should return to the classroom while awaiting trial.
Anderson told 9NEWS that shootings that occur off school property should not necessarily result in a student being shifted to online learning, an alternative school, or expulsion.
“We can’t deny students an education based off of behavior that occurred outside of our district,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that removing a student from in-person education due to an attempted murder charge could create a slippery slope.
“If we open the door for this, what other doors will be open when it relates to other crimes that could be committed by students outside of the district’s hours?” Anderson said.
Anderson said DPS can craft safety plans to bring students charged with violent crimes back into the classroom.
Some of those safety plans include daily pat downs to check for weapons.
Two East High administrators were shot by a student on March 22 as they searched the student for weapons.
The student, Austin Lyle, had been removed from Cherry Creek Schools in 2021 following a weapons violation that same year.
When asked by 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark what responsibility DPS has to keep students safe from classmates suspected of violence, Anderson reiterated that those students should stay in class.
“We’re not in the practice of dismissing students because they’ve made mistakes,” Anderson said. “We’re talking about, you know, expulsion or pushing out kids, potentially kids of color, at a high, alarming rate because they’ve made a mistake.”
Anderson led the 2020 effort to have school resource officers removed from Denver Public Schools. The school board voted unanimously in 2020 to phase out the Denver Police officers assigned to schools.
Anderson said he supported a recent measure to return SROs to schools following the East High shooting because Denver Mayor Michael Hancock was threatening to bring back the officers through an executive order.
The Mayor’s office categorically denied Anderson’s claim.
Anderson championed removing the SROs as he also led social justice protests in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.
At one protest, Anderson addressed the crowd saying that all police are “motherf*****s” and “corrupt.”
Anderson stood by some of those comments when asked by 9NEWS this week.
“We’ve seen unarmed African American individuals murdered at the hands of law enforcement. That’s a corrupt practice,” Anderson said. “When we talk about the 'all' in the generalization, I think that was maybe in the heat of the moment and I think that I have been able to work with law enforcement since the summer of 2020.”
Anderson is up for reelection to his at-large school board seat in November and has openly challenged critics following the East High shooting to beat him at the ballot box.
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