Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero issued a stern warning to the Board of Education: Reverse its decision to temporarily fire armed police officers from district high schools and Mayor Michael B. Hancock would intervene with an executive order.
“It’s beyond our control,” Marrero told the board during the March 23 executive session released Saturday.
Hancock’s office has long maintained that no such threat has ever been issued.
NEW: Footage from the March 23 executive session showing the threat of an executive order from former Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock. The chairman of the council tried to censor me for sharing this information with our communities and the mayor denied making the remark. pic.twitter.com/BX0rdKAz8v
— Auontai M. Anderson (@AuontaiAnderson) July 21, 2023
The never-before-seen conversation is the public’s first glimpse into the board’s early response to the shootings of two administrators at East High School, the district’s flagship campus.
DPS officials held the conversation in executive session, then fought against the release of the recording, until now. Denver Public Schools Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who advocated for the release of the recording, posted an excerpt to Twitter on Friday after the board voted unanimously to release it.
The taping had already been ordered by a district judge in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of local media including The Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics.
“Even if you all replace me, which is going to be terminal, the mayor can issue an executive order … just like he did with the vaccine mandate,” Marrero said. “So I understand that’s a very problematic conversation to have, but it’s going to happen. It’s out of our control.
As his words hung in the air, Marrero added: “I hope it can be our decision, but we’re going to be bound by an executive order, at least that’s what (Hancock) told me last night.”
Board Chairman Xóchitl Gaytán then asked Marrero what a possible executive order would entail.
In response, Marrero said they could face “penalties” similar to the mayor’s vaccination mandate two years ago.
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Hancock’s August 2021 vaccine order was among the first of its kind in Colorado at the time, spurred by rising COVID-19 infections. The order required municipal, hospital, long-term care, school, prison and prison workers and the homeless to be vaccinated by the end of September this year.
Under it, every Denver teacher and staff member at all grade levels was required to be vaccinated. The order also applied to the city’s approximately 10,000 municipal employees. The order extended beyond people who work directly for the city or for the government in general and covered employees of hospitals and nursing homes. At the time, Hancock said the city would work with city employees who have questions, but “there could be people who could lose their jobs behind this, we recognize that.”
“Well, then, I think the conversation is moot for the district,” Anderson said in the recording, “because our opinions don’t matter.”
Following a spate of violence at Denver public schools last year, the board held a closed executive session.
At Friday’s special meeting, where the board decided to release the recording of the executive session, Anderson said that, were it not for the “threat” from Hancock, he did not believe armed officers would be back on campus.
Hancock’s administration had maintained that no threats had been issued by the mayor’s office. In response to Anderson’s claim at the time, Denver City Attorney Kerry Tipper told The Denver Gazette that no executive order forcing school resource officers into DPS schools was discussed, and that the mayor would not issue such an emergency declaration.
“On the contrary, DPS has contacted Chief Thomas and the Mayor about our ability to reinstate ORS and we have been working to meet demand as much as possible,” Tipper said.
The mayor’s office insisted that the decision to put ORS back into schools came from Marrero alone and that “there is no truth to Principal Anderson’s assertion.”
“At no time did the mayor offer an executive order, or threaten to issue one as an ultimatum if the school board refused to act,” Mike Strott, the mayor’s spokesman, said in an email to The Denver Gazette. “Mayor Hancock does not intimidate or threaten people.”
Hancock’s office also said that, despite his public opposition to school resource officers, Anderson asked the Denver Police Department to deploy dozens of ORS to schools after the shooting at East High School, and that Anderson made such a request to Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas before the DPS board voted to return ORS to schools.
Anderson — who was chastised by Gaytán for leaking information shared during the executive session to the press — did not dispute that he asked Thomas to return ORS to Denver schools.
Last month, the board overturned its 2020 ban and reinstated SROs in a 4-3 split vote.
He reversed again on Friday by voting to release the video.
DPS opposes court order to release recording of executive session to media coalition
For months, the district maintained that the executive session was properly conducted according to state law. And they fought his release, despite a ruling by District Court Judge Andrew Luxen, who found the district violated Colorado’s opening meetings law and ordered his release.
Marrero had called on the board to meet out of public view to discuss district policy against school resource officers.
At least three board members — Anderson and trustees Scott Baldermann and Michelle Quattlebaum — said they thought the executive session was inappropriate.
An attorney representing the media coalition said that without the lawsuit, it’s unlikely the public will have access to the recording because the district denied Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests and fought its release in court.
“There is no doubt that without this litigation, Denver Public Schools would not be releasing the recording today or any day,” said Steve Zansberg, counsel for the media coalition.
Denver judge finds DPS executive session violated open meeting law
