Magistrates, lawyers discuss young people, guns and school safety | Courts

Adams County Magistrate Michal Lord-Blegen was a school principal in Aurora when two teenagers killed 13 people and themselves at Columbine High School in 1999. The massacre was a lens through which she viewed her later work as a director and as a lawyer.

“We have a lot of kids with guns,” Lord-Blegen said earlier this month. “But these kids aren’t destroying the schools. They either don’t go to school, or school is actually one of the places where they feel safe.”

Lord-Blegen was among the speakers at an Oct. 16 discussion sponsored by the Colorado Bar Association that focused broadly on children’s access to firearms 25 years after the Columbine shooting. Prosecutors and defense attorneys discussed their handling of juvenile gun cases, as well as the various safety strategies schools have turned to.

“I believe that SROs actually contribute greatly to school safety in that they are there for the purpose of building relationships with the students,” said Lauren Asher, a prosecutor with the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, referring to school staff. “I think the myth is, ‘If we don’t have SROs, the police won’t contact our students.’ That’s just not true.”

As a truancy judge, “When I ask kids if they have a trusted adult, they often mention the SRO,” Lord-Blegen added.

Whether school employees increase safety or unnecessarily promote criminalization of children’s behavior has been the subject of several studies. The Denver Public Schools Board of Education voted to remove police officers during the 2020-2021 school year, but returned them in 2023 after a shooting at East High School.

Erin Pier, a former school psychologist and executive director of the Transformative Justice Project of Colorado, described a case study in which the same student was punished twice for punching a hole in the wall at her school.

The first time, the principal escorted the student to the SRO, who issued him a citation for destruction of property. The student was subsequently suspended. The second time, during the following school year, the student walked into Pier’s office after damaging the wall. The principal came in and thanked the student for only punching the wall and not another student, and for seeking help from an adult. The director also suggested that they come up with a plan to help repair the damage.

Pier said the student cried, walked out of her office and hugged the student he had initially become angry with. He also apologized to his teacher and helped fix the hole.

‘The same child. Same problem,” Pier said. “But the response to that behavior was so different under those different leadership styles.”

Asher, the plaintiff, echoed the concern that administrators should not reflexively name an SRO because it is “easy.”

“At the DA’s office, we receive files from an SRO because they have to send them to us,” she said. “And we’ll look at it and say, ‘I don’t want this case. This should have been a school matter. This should have been dealt with in the school building – possibly restorative justice. This does not have to be a matter of state. attack.'”

“I want to draw our attention to the fact that the young people, the children we’re talking about,” Lord-Blegen added, “these are not typically the kind of children who do the mass school shootings in Columbine. We are now talking about one type of safety in school, the type of safety that we all experience and deal with on a daily basis. But it’s really different from the Columbine-type stuff.”

Therefore, Lord-Blegen said it would be “very rare” for her to detain a child if the only charge was possession of a gun. She indicated that a second arrest or an escalating threat would be necessary for incarceration.

The panelists noted that students’ learning challenges or difficulties navigating the COVID-19 pandemic have led to disruption or potential violence — in some cases without a clear path for intervention.

“I don’t want to say it’s too late for a 17-year-old,” Asher said, “but if I already know their name from contact with police, we should have been there seven years ago.”

Possible firearm charges for adults

The discussion also focused on the ways in which adults can be charged for children’s use or possession of firearms. Recently there was a couple from Michigan convicted and sentenced to prison for their role in facilitating the murder of four students by their teenage son in 2021. Last month Prosecutors in Georgia have charged a man in the same manner for allegedly enabling his son’s murder of two students and two teachers through his own actions.

“In Colorado and most states, the parent-child relationship does not automatically make parents liable,” says Renée Franchi, a personal injury attorney and former prosecutor. “The real lynchpin for liability in these cases is the parents’ knowledge of the potential harm and their ability to control the child and the child’s actions.”

She added that if a parent gives their child a firearm and later learns of the possibility of violence, he or she is required to take the gun away.

“Generally, the courts at the national level place significant emphasis on whether the child’s actions were predictable to the parents,” Franchi added.

First Assistant Attorney General Robert S. Shapiro reviewed Colorado’s various firearms statutes, which include unlawful provision of a handgun to a minor, safe storage of weapons and failure to report a lost or stolen firearm. In order for an adult to be liable, his actions generally must be knowing or reckless.

“It’s not a Second Amendment issue. This is about adults violating their duty to make society safer,” Shapiro said. “It is our job to ensure that law enforcement is well informed about these laws … so they can ask the right questions as they develop evidence.”

Denver’s Specialized Gun Court

Finally, panelists from the Denver Juvenile Court discussed the “Handgun Intervention Court,” an idea that emerged in 2018 and was intended to address the root causes of why children acquire guns. The number of handgun ownership cases among Denver youth nearly doubled between 2005 and 2022, from 63 to 118, with most of the increase occurring after 2015

The specialty court, which will begin its eleventh group of participants next month, is intended for those suspected of possessing weapons but have no criminal history.

Juvenile defendants admitted to diversion will receive a six-month deferred adjudication with the requirement to participate in a seven-week program.

“Basically what this means is that a person pleads guilty to the charge. The guilty plea does not actually go on their record – so it is deferred for a period of six months,” said Magistrate Courtney Denson, noting that the child was given a has a probationary period. that period.

As a former lawyer, this is a pretty favorable deal, Denson continued. “We look not only at the involvement and involvement of the youth, but also at that of the parents.”

When asked about recidivism among program participants, the panel members responded that an analysis is being done.