Insufficient evidence exists to pursue criminal charges or further disciplinary action against five senior boys accused of bullying and racially harassing classmates, investigators told the school board in La Jara on Tuesday.
As a result, North Conejos school board president Leroy Salazar said, the Centauri High School prom last night was to be open to everyone, including the five 18-year-olds.
“We have followed the advice of legal counsel every step of the way,” Salazar said.
A spokesman for the boys, attorney Cass Garcia, declined to comment.
The five – Trey Jackson, Dylan Valerio, Cole Smith, Kyle Martin and Gavin Rodriguez – voluntarily withdrew from school last week after classes were canceled for a day May 4 and the prom postponed.
Hundreds of parents complained after the circulation of a photo of four of the boys with guns in one hand and the other arm raised in a Nazi-style salute. The boys have said they were just “messing around” when it was taken after a target practice.
The boys also would neither confirm nor deny raising a Confederate flag above the school in the middle of the night over Easter break.
Salazar said an investigation continues into the boys’ behavior, and it is unknown whether they can return to school or participate in the May 26 graduation ceremony.
Conejos County District Attorney Peter Comar did not return calls about the investigation.
The Conejos County Sheriff’s Office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and a private investigator hired by the school have also been involved at various stages of the investigation.
Parents have complained at several school forums that officials have too long tolerated the boys’ bullying behavior against classmates caught in the middle of their falling-out with a popular Centauri coach, Larry Joe Hunt, an African- American.
The boys have denied being racist and intimidating classmates who supported Hunt. The boys and their parents said their complaints stemmed from Hunt’s behavior, including his alleged code of silence in the locker room, tolerance of foul language and playing music with offensive lyrics.
The boys said the school district “brushed off” their concerns.
Hunt, who filed a complaint against the school district with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in December, would not comment.
Salazar said school attendance, which had dipped dramatically after the May 4 incident, is rising again in the final few weeks of classes.
The school board has met almost nightly since the school closure to “heal the community,” Salazar said.
“We are committed to seeing nothing like this ever happens again,” Salazar said.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com.
