Denver Public Schools Board Vice President Auon'tai Anderson and Mayor Michael Hancock's office offered two competing versions of why DPS decided to bring back school resource officers to Denver schools.
The way Anderson put it, the DPS board was forced to reverse its 2020 decision to kick out SROs because Hancock was poised to issue an executive order declaring an emergency in order to place police in schools had the board not acted last week.
Hancock's office said the decision to put back SROs in schools came from DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero alone.
"There’s no truth to Director Anderson’s claim," said Mike Strott, the mayor's spokesperson.
"The decision to return SROs to high schools was Superintendent Marrero’s decision alone, which the mayor encouraged and supports, because it’s the right decision," Strott added.
Strott also rejected any insinuation that the mayor bullied the DPS board into reversing its position on SROs.
"At no time did the mayor propose an executive order, nor did he threaten to issue one as an ultimatum if the school board refused to act," he said. "Mayor Hancock does not bully or threaten people. Others may operate that way. He does not."
Denver City Attorney Kerry Tipper said neither she nor the mayor discussed any executive order or other action forcing SROs back into DPS schools.
"To the contrary, DPS approached Chief Thomas and the mayor about our capacity to reinstate SROs," she told The Denver Gazette, referring to Ron Thomas, Denver's police chief. "Any legal analysis that followed was premised on the board’s support. To suggest otherwise is flat wrong."
DPS President Xóchitl Gaytán said Marrero shared "many details and hypothetical situations" with board members in an executive session. Gaytán said the board "does not disclose discussions that occur in executive session due to the deliberative process privilege afforded by Colorado’s open meetings law."
"In the immediate aftermath of the incident at East High School last week, there were ongoing conversations between Mayor Hancock and his staff and Superintendent Dr. Marrero and his staff," Gaytán said. "During these conversations, the mayor offered full support for Dr. Marrero, enabling him to take swift action to ensure the safety of Denver's students."
Meanwhile, the DPS, as a body, distanced itself from Anderson's allegations. In a statement, a spokesperson for the board said only the DPS president represents and speaks for the board.
And Gaytán, the board president, has "not delegated this authority to any other board director," the spokesperson said in a statement, adding, "Individual directors of the DPS Board of Education have a right to free speech and when they engage with the public, they are speaking for themselves and do not represent the views of the entire body."
The DPS board on Thursday voted unanimously to suspend its ban on armed school resource officers on school grounds. The board also directed the superintendent to devise a long-term safety plan before the end of June.
Before that vote, Marrero said he would have an armed officer at each of the district’s comprehensive high schools — a step that he acknowledged likely violated the school board policy, according to Chalkbeat Colorado.
Marrero sent a letter to board members hours after two Denver East High School staffers were shot and wounded by a student on Wednesday.
"I can no longer stand on the sidelines," Marrero wrote.
Anderson effectively accused Hancock of forcing the board's hand.
“The school board’s jurisdiction only goes so far,” Anderson said at a press conference he called Monday Morning.
Anderson added: “I can’t pass gun control.”
The board also had the option of sticking by its 2020 decision.
In 2020, following the public outrage and national protests at the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, the board unanimously decided to cut ties with the Denver Police.
The move, as it was in other large urban school district’s across the country, was prompted by concerns of over-policing of black and brown students.
DPS gradually phased out SROs in middle schools and then high schools, Anderson said.
Anderson made his remarks Monday during a press conference at Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center Denver.
The board's Thursday vote came after police say a 17-year-old student shot and injured two administrators Wednesday. The student later killed himself, according to police.