Approximately 20 Jefferson County Public Schools employees were placed on paid administrative leave for allegedly forwarding inappropriate or pornographic e-mails, but parents Tuesday had mixed reactions about the controversy at their children’s schools.
Golden resident Deborah Napier, whose son attends Bell Middle School, said she is upset at the district for providing virtually no information to parents.
“The school district has been investigating this for two months, and I heard about it on the radio,” Napier said, waving a copy of a two-paragraph statement distributed by the school Tuesday. “The district is the problem. I have confidence in the school.”
But Maria Givens, also of Golden, said the district might be overreacting.
“It’s probably overblown,” she said. “The teachers did not have any bad intent.”
The school declined to release the exact number of employees involved, the schools where they worked or whether all the staffers will be fired.
District Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said fewer than 20 employees, including teachers and staffers, were involved and the workers were on paid leave. She declined to name schools or give other information.
“Some of the material was offensive and some of it was clearly pornographic,” she said. “There is no evidence students saw anything or were involved, but the potential was there.”
Nancy Henderson, president of the Jefferson County Education Association, said she understands that four teachers were placed on leave, but the teachers have not been formally apprised of the charges.
