Colorado parents decry board member’s description of school safety as a ‘privilege’

Several parents in a Colorado district have taken issue with a board member’s description of school safety as a “privilege” that cannot be guaranteed.

The criticism comes after a September shooting at Jefferson County Public Schools’ Evergreen High School, which injured two students and killed the shooter, who died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds. 

“On Wednesday the 10th, a trust was broken between my daughter and I,” said Evergreen High School parent Matt Thompson at a board meeting, reported by the local ABC affiliate. “The fact that when she went to school, she would be safe. That shattered promise is not easily fixed.”

Board Member Erin Kenworthy responded to Thompson’s remarks with a statement that “caused a stir within the district,” according to journalists.

“For one of the gentlemen, I wanted to say, safety is actually a privilege,” she said. “It is not a right and it cannot be guaranteed, which is incredibly hard for any parent to say to their child.”

Increased safety measures across schools nationwide

As previously reported by The Heartlander, a number of high-profile school shootings has spurred educational administrators to increase security measures – including school resource officers (SROs), weapons detection systems and ballistic shields. s

“Safety and security has certainly become more at the forefront of our thinking as school leaders than it was when I started 20-plus years ago,” said Dr. Rob Brown, head of school at the K-12 private Christian school First Presbyterian Academy (FPA).

“We didn’t have to think about ballistic material on windows or doors.”

Schools such as Sapulpa Middle School in Oklahoma have also canceled classes “out of an abundance of caution” while investigating threats of violence on social media.

In the wake of such measures, parents expressed concerns over Kenworthy’s statement as they urged the district to consider “more school resource officers, mental health resources, and metal detectors,” the ABC affiliate reported.

“The tone that we see is we need a layered approach to safety, and to have this governing member of the Board of Education shoot that down as impossible — of course, no risk can be fully mitigated, but we do expect the fullest effort to protect our students,” parent Lindsay Datko said.

Part of the frustration stems from what the community considered a slow response on the district’s part to make changes in safety plans after the shooting, according to news reports.

“Our most important job is to protect our children,” argued Evergreen resident Kim Halligan, “and what we’re doing right now is not working.”

At the time of the shooting, the school’s full-time SRO was on medical leave even though concerns had been previously raised about this absence during PTA meetings, the ABC affiliate reported.

After Kenworthy spoke, the district released a statement saying her remarks were “not intended to suggest that students in Jeffco Public Schools do not have a right to safety.”