Months before shooting, parent warned Colorado school could be next 'Columbine'

[May 11, 2019]  By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) - Five months before Tuesday's deadly shooting at a Colorado school, a district official urged the school's director to investigate allegations of student bullying and violence by a parent who feared they could lead to the next "Columbine."

In a Dec. 19 letter to the director of the STEM School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, the district official said the anonymous parent raised "concerns about student violence due to a high-pressure environment" and referred to the massacre at a nearby school in 1999.

One student was killed and eight injured when two classmates opened fire with handguns at the school on Tuesday.

The district official's letter, seen by Reuters, said the parent told Douglas County School Board of Education Director Wendy Vogel by telephone that "many students are suicidal and violent in school. Several students have reported sexual assault and nothing is being done."

Referencing an alleged bomb threat and "an extremely high drug culture at STEM," the parent said the environment at the school was "the perfect storm," according to the letter.

The parent expressed concerns about a repeat of what happened at Columbine, when 12 students and one teacher were killed, about five miles northwest of the STEM school.

Douglas County School District official Daniel Winsor's letter to STEM Executive Director Penelope Eucker asked the school to investigate the parent's "very serious" concerns, determine their "legitimacy, and "take any remedial action that may be appropriate."

The district informed police of the allegations, it said. Cocha Heyden, a spokeswoman for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, said on Thursday that the district filed a police report about the complaints.

Crime scene tape is seen outside the school following the shooting at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, U.S., May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Winsor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Eucker said in a statement on Thursday that STEM contacted the school's 2,800 parents seeking information on the complaints.

"While STEM took the allegations seriously, our investigation revealed no evidence to support any of the allegations," the statement said.

On January 17, the school filed a lawsuit in Douglas County District Court seeking to establish the identity of the anonymous parent, who it said defamed the school and Eucker.

On Feb. 1, the school told parents their attorney was seeking "full remedy" for the "outrageous accusations," which also included embezzling public funds and teaching children how to build bombs.

"We want you to know the depth of this depravity and apologize if you find this as offensive as we did," said that letter, seen by Reuters.

(Reporting By Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Chizu Nomiyama)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.