Denver’s school board will vote Thursday on a new discipline policy that has taken two years to craft and focuses more on changing behaviors than suspensions and referrals to police.
But much of the discussion Monday night at a board study session was about a section that requires law enforcement to be called for specific student-on-student incidents, including those involving sexual behaviors and witness intimidation.
Last year, a middle-school principal was taken to court for failing to report a student-on-student incident to police.
Nicole Veltze, principal of Skinner Middle School, says she was following district rules when she meted out punishment for two male students who inappropriately touched a female seventh-grader.
But the Denver district attorney said she broke the law. A judge later threw out the case.
District Attorney Mitch Morrissey on Monday addressed the board, saying the new discipline policy must include the student-on-student section because it is state law.
He said his office will be available to answer questions when school officials are unsure about reporting an incident.
“That’s our goal, to have someone field these calls where it’s just up in the air,” he said.
District officials said principals and assistant principals were trained on the pending policy at a summer workshop.
Morrissey said teachers often are the first to notice signs of child abuse and pointed to the recent case of 7-year-old Chandler Grafner, who was starved to death by his guardians.
Months before the boy’s death, his teacher at Holm Elementary alerted officials after seeing bruises.
“The school district did what it was supposed to do, but the system didn’t work,” Morrissey said.
However, a citizens group examining the new discipline policy said the section on student-on-student abuse is still confusing and is likely to result in more cases like Veltze’s.
“Putting this in here has the ability to confuse,” said Jeanne Price of the discipline-policy review committee, who fears that the ambiguity will mean more kids will be reported to law enforcement.
Teachers and principals will not know whether they will be prosecuted for failing to notify officials when students snap a bra or other juvenile behavior, she said.
“We’ve already seen an increase of reporting to law enforcement,” she said. “There’s confusion in this (administration) building, and there will be confusion elsewhere. We don’t want to see a chilling effect.”
Property sale could bring district $75 million
Denver Public Schools could net as much as $75 million by selling 10 properties, according to a report by the Urban Land Institute.
The district asked the group for a report on 12 of its potential surplus properties — some of them closed schools, some that would require relocations — and recommendations were presented to the school board Monday night. No decision to sell any district properties has been made. It will require public input and board approval.
The recommendations were to sell 10 of the properties as soon as possible: the Emily Griffith Opportunity School, Central Administration Building, Rosedale Elementary, Gove Middle School, Byers Middle School, the Career Learning Academy, Fox Street property, Glenbrook vacant land, northeast bus terminal and Place vacant land. The report recommended holding onto Crofton Elementary School and vacant land in the Central Platte Valley.
