Mom fears for school security

Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 1, 2006 at midnight

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More Platte Canyon High School Shooting

BAILEY - Ellen Keyes fears that a vote to shift more money to public school classrooms will make it harder to stop people like her daughter's killer.

Five weeks after 16-year-old Emily Keyes was shot to death by a man who held her and five other girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School, her mother warned that if Amendment 39 passes, there will be less money to improve school security.

Keyes, a longtime school volunteer, was opposed to Amendment 39 even before Duane Morrison walked unchallenged into the school bent on the rampage that ended when a SWAT team stormed the classroom. Morrison shot Emily, then himself.

But Keyes saw the measure in a new light when she looked at it again after burying her daughter.

"I got angry, but boy, I have to say that right about then getting angry was pretty easy for me," Keyes said Tuesday.

Amendment 39 would require school districts to spend 65 percent of their budgets on classroom instruction, including teachers, books and related expenses.

Security officers, psychologists and counselors would be competing against bus drivers and lunchroom workers for what's left, Keyes said. Counselors and psychologists are particularly important in working with troubled kids, she said.

"People who go into schools and shoot people up - they're falling through the cracks," she said. "How do we catch these?"

The man who shot Emily had "family issues" long before the murder, Keyes said.

"It's not to say this is going to fix family issues, but schools over the past few decades have been expected to step in and handle some support services that you would expect families to handle, but some can't handle," she said.

Educators also have expressed concerns that Amendment 39 could mean fewer workers who target the most troubled youths.

Law enforcement officials have similar concerns.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson, the head of the Colorado Sheriff's Association Legislative Committee, said the amendment would remove critical support services from the schools.

"I believe strongly in a healthy classroom environment, but you can only get that if you have the support mechanisms in place," Robinson said.

Rep. Joe Stengel, the Littleton Republican heading the group backing Amendment 39, said he didn't want to dispute Keyes.

"I'm not going to engage in using this tragedy for political gain," said Stengel, who heads the group First Class Education Colorado. "It's reprehensible and deplorable. I'm not going to stoop to that level."

But Stengel dismissed the sheriff's concern, saying, "It's bureaucrats trying to protect bureaucrats."

Stengel said schools are funded adequately, but the money is misspent on administrators. He believes test scores would improve under Amendment 39.

But Keyes, who chairs the accountability committee for the Bailey school district, said it's up to local school boards to decide how to spend their money.

"It is not up to some feel-good group to determine what the districts need," Keyes said.

morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5209 Staff writer Hector Gutierrez contributed to this report.

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