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The family of Luis Garcia, a 16-year-old who was shot outside Denver’s East High School last year and died of his injuries, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Denver Public Schools.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, alleges that East High “subverted and weakened the security and safe environment” of the school when armed police officers were removed, allowing “potential shooters to believe they would be able to execute an attack.” The Denver school board had voted to remove all school resource officers from DPS schools in 2020.
The lawsuit accuses DPS of violating the Claire Davis School Safety Act, a state law named for a Colorado student who died in a school shooting. The law allows school districts to be held liable if they fail to exercise “reasonable care” to protect students and staff from “reasonably foreseeable” acts of violence at school, including murder.
In addition to DPS, the lawsuit names past and present members of the Denver school board as defendants. The board reversed its decision to remove armed police from schools in 2023 after Luis’ death and a shooting inside East High a month later. East High now has two SROs.
A Denver Public Schools spokesperson said the district does not comment on pending litigation. Board President Carrie Olson, who has served on the board since 2017, said the same.
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