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EVERGREEN, Colo. (KDVR) — Less than 24 hours before the shooting at Evergreen High School, parents at a parent-teacher-student association meeting questioned why their school didn’t have a full-time school resource officer. Now those questions are louder and more urgent than ever.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Wednesday that there was no school resource officer on campus when the shooting unfolded.

At the PTSA meeting, the lack of a dedicated school resource officer was brought up directly.

Jefferson County Sheriff Officials say the school’s full-time SRO is out on medical leave and a part-time deputy assigned to the area had just left the campus to respond to a nearby crash.

“Evergreen High School used to have a full-time SRO. That SRO is on medical leave right now. So, it’s a shared duty. Horrible timing, of course, but shared duty,” said Jacki Kelley, Jefferson County Sheriff’s PIO. “We have a couple of part-time SROs that share this school right now. There was no one at, from the SRO unit, at the school when the shooting started. He was there until 10:30, 10:45, then he was dispatched out here for an accident pretty close by.”

Just the night before, at the PTSA meeting inside Evergreen High, a parent asked what would happen if a shooting unfolded.

According to PTSA President Cindy Mazeika and the school’s website minutes, the school principal told families the mountain schools had been “deprioritized” and that a single SRO was now shared across several campuses due to limited resources.

Student says she doesn’t recall seeing SROs on campus

Mazeika said it was eerie having that conversation just hours before. She also said it was upsetting to hear the response from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, saying what was mentioned Thursday morning wasn’t true.

“He wasn’t there. I don’t even know of one. Whenever I mentioned to my daughter, she said, ‘What SRO? We don’t have an SRO. I’ve never seen an SRO on campus,'” said Mazeika. “When it happened, I got so many texts from people that were at that meeting. We were just talking about this last night. Did we jinx ourselves? Our tiny mountain town never would have thought this would happen. and obviously neither did the school board.”

Mazeika says she doesn’t believe many parents knew the SRO position had been scaled back.

“If there was somebody there, they would respond at the first shot. He never would have been able to get off that many shots,” she said.

We took a look at the Jefferson County School’s website where Jeffco Public Schools acknowledged earlier this year that it’s only funding 50% of SRO costs going foward.

Jefferson County Schools provided a statement on Thursday:

“Jeffco Public Schools is firmly committed to our robust School Resource Officer (SRO) program with our partner law enforcement agencies. In fact, Jeffco has increased our investment this year by covering fifty percent of the cost of the School Resource Officer (SRO) program with our partner law enforcement agencies. Jeffco’s SRO program is a point of pride for our district, and we remain committed to sustaining it. Regarding how the JCSO chooses how to staff Evergreen High School and the other schools in their jurisdiction, you need to direct that question to them as Jeffco Public Schools does not have authority over that choice.

However, parents are demanding more than funding plans; they want immediate protection, saying they need SROs in all schools and the funding needs to be found.

“This is so much bigger than just Evergreen High School. This has impacted our entire community. Even if you don’t have kids at any of the schools. I just want to say that we appreciate everybody’s support and the staff, everything that they have done at Evergreen High School,” said Mazeika. The first responders, you know, and just tell the students that we are here. We’re going through this with you. Even if they weren’t at the school, it’s still tragic.”

The PTSA said there are ways to donate to the school, through its website, to have a start on funding the SROs.

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Anthony Sutton is a business strategist and writer with a passion for management, leadership, and entrepreneurship. With years of experience in the corporate world, he shares insights on business growth, strategy, and innovation through management-opleiding.org.