No one has accused Bradley Bass of having bad intent when he preserved Snapchat images. A ruling is expected later this month.
Safe2Tell
Coronavirus-related calls are dominating Colorado’s mental health crisis hotline
About 60% of calls to Colorado’s crisis hotline this month had the same theme: the new coronavirus. Callers are isolated and anxious. Some are stressed because the pandemic cost them their jobs or reduced their income. Others are overwhelmed by spending whole days with their families and helping kids with online school. And some are […]
These five bills are designed to make Colorado schools safer. None touches on guns.
Colorado’s School Safety Committee moved forward with five bills on Thursday that seek to prevent any more children from becoming victims of school violence. None, however, addresses a core issue related to many incidents of school violence: firearms and students’ access to them. The only mention of guns came at the tail end of Thursday’s […]
Colorado’s trailblazing Safe2Tell system needs significant upgrades, lawmakers say
Two decades ago, in the wake of the Columbine school shooting, Colorado officials created the Safe2Tell anonymous tip line to help prevent more school massacres. The system set a standard for prevention efforts, one replicated across the nation. But now, lawmakers and mental health experts think Colorado’s system needs a significant upgrade to address an […]
Crisanta Duran: “Never again” must be more than just words
Our Colorado communities know all too well the deep pain caused by gun violence. From the Columbine shooting in 1999 to the May shooting at the STEM school of Highlands Ranch, gun violence has made a lasting impact on our communities. The shootings of the past couple of weeks in Dayton, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois, […]
Highlands Ranch school shooting suspects were too young to purchase handguns used in deadly attack
Investigators on Wednesday morning are digging into how the two teenage suspects obtained a pair of handguns they allegedly used Tuesday afternoon in a deadly shooting at a school in Highlands Ranch — weapons neither are old enough to legally purchase themselves. Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock declined to go into detail about the firearms […]
What we learned investigating school safety for our “After Columbine” series
The Colorado Sun’s After Columbine series of investigative reports found that much has changed in Colorado schools 20 years after that mass shooting pierced the nation’s consciousness. Here are a few of the big things we learned during our reporting: Investigative journalism like this is only possible because of the support of readers like you. […]
Use of Safe2Tell, created in response to Columbine, is growing as front line tool in school safety
Susan Payne remembers the year, 2010, when the Safe2Tell platform for tips on potentially harmful school behavior had just introduced a texting option that yielded only about 100 reports. One of them involved some boys, online gamers, who were winding up their video competition and signing off when something happened that caused them to sound […]
A fight on a school bus, a knife in a backpack, suicide tips from Safe2Tell: The post-Columbine world of school safety runs 24/7
“Fight in progress,” the dispatcher’s voice crackled into the patrol car. Officer Clyde Casados slowed to a stop on a quiet neighborhood street in northeast Denver and checked his laptop screen for more detail: students were brawling on a school bus near Xenia Street and East 23rd Avenue. It was 4:33 p.m. on a Thursday, […]
How Donald Trump, guns and cash spelled an end to Mike Coffman’s decade in Congress
Days before the election, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman stood at a busy intersection in the 6th Congressional District waving campaign signs and smiling at passing motorists, searching for any sign that he might keep his job. His 30-year political career hung in the balance, and the five-term incumbent Republican from Aurora acknowledged that he was […]