Video shows alleged kidnapping attempt at Aurora school; parents meet with district
AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — A newly released video shows the moment a registered sex offender allegedly tried to abduct a child from a Colorado elementary school earlier this month.
FOX31 obtained the clip Monday from Black Forest Hills Elementary School, in Aurora. The one-minute video shows a group of children running away from the suspect.
“It’s super scary to watch,” said Dante White, whose child encountered the suspect. “Especially seeing the perpetrator, the pictures of him. I would be freaked out if that guy touched me. It was an attempted kidnapping.”
Parents face school leaders after Aurora kidnapping attempt
On Monday afternoon, parents finally had the chance to face Cherry Creek Public Schools leaders to discuss what unfolded.
“They did admit fault. They called it a mistake. Mistakes are for burning pizzas — these are people’s children, right? These are lives,” White said.
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Lauren Snell, public information officer for the school district, said: “We understand the school should have been put on secure status. Again, all of the staff at the school have been retrained and have reviewed all safety protocols.”
School officials told parents that safety plans are in place, but faculty did not follow them.
“We don’t want anyone who is not supposed to be on school property on school property. We understand this is very traumatic for those families, but we also are committed to ensuring the safety of all students, and we have taken many steps to ensure that all students will be safe at BFHE,” Snell said. “Right now, what we’ve have done is we’ve added a support person for the principal as well as change where the teacher assistants are located on the playground during recess so that they have full visibility when they are playing on the playground, and we have also had all staff members at BFHE, they have reviewed safety protocols as well.”
It took 10 days for the meeting to happen.
“I wouldn’t say satisfied — I would say somewhat satiated, right. There is a little bit of hope. Like I said, these kinds of things take collaboration,” White said. “We were first slated for 30 minutes. We didn’t think it would be very fair, but we were given an hour, which was nice.”
The moment is one parents are not forgetting and want to use to better protect their children, and they feel it starts at the top.
“Nothing was promised today, right? They said no decisions could be made in the moment. Not even firing the principal, which I kind of think is a no-brainer,” White said. “I understand there are budgets and things that need to get done. He’s dealing with 60 schools right, so if you do one for one school, you got to do it for the rest. A lot of things need to be evaluated. The thing I do have hope for is still having an open door, and having those conversations.”
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District leaders say they will continue to work with parents and said the school is not taking any action on employees as an investigation is being conducted. However, parents feel there should be immediate action taken against the staff involved.
They would like to see people placed on administrative leave, at least, and an outside investigation to be conducted rather than an internal one.
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