Nearly three years after Denver Public Schools’ board unanimously decided to remove armed officers in the wake of George Floyd’s death, the district’s superintendent is changing course.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero wrote a letter recently announcing the return of police officers to schools — a move that comes after yet another shocking shooting rocked his community.
“Today was my fourth visit to Denver Health’s Intensive Care Unit due to victims of gun violence,” he wrote. “These events should not have happened on my watch or on this Board’s watch.”
The superintendent said he plans to have two armed Denver Police Department officers at East High School throughout the rest of this school year, and will also have an armed officer at other high schools.
Marrero pointed out these moves likely violate the board’s 2020 limitations on officers in schools, though he noted the needs far outweigh such considerations.
The school board voted in June 2020 to reduce police officers in schools by 25% through the end of 2020 and to ax its partnership entirely with the Denver Police Department by the end of the 2021 school year.
“While our school resource officers are great people who love our students, we want to address the systemic issues our students face,” then-School Board Vice President Jennifer Bacon said at the time.
Now, the board is openly supporting cops’ return to campuses. This is just one of many examples that confirm how absolutely insane the defund the police movement was and the consequences our country is paying for that misguided movement.