Video: Watch man lunge at child in attempted kidnapping at a Colorado school
By Tori Mason
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COLORADO (KCNC) — Parents of students at Black Forest Hills Elementary School met with district leaders Monday to discuss the school’s response to an attempted kidnapping. Families were also shown surveillance video of the incident for the first time.
“We hope that children embellish a little bit, but the footage there showed exactly what was stated,” said Dante White, a school parent. “It was hard. It was really hard.”
Surveillance footage shows a person police say was Solomon Galligan walking onto school property, approaching students and lunging at a child before falling down. Children are later seen running from the area toward teachers’ assistants off screen.
White watched the video with other families impacted at a meeting with the superintendent and district officials Monday. CCSD says they wanted to hear from those families directly and understand their perspectives.
“They did admit fault. They did apologize. And now the next steps are to schedule a secondary meeting, because we’ve prescribed a couple of items that we wanted done,” said White. “We want an independent investigation of it, we want people put on administrative leave, we want people fired.”
Among the requests were also increased safety training, more fencing and new surveillance equipment.
CCSD says the principal as well as district leadership has met with families on multiple occasions to answer their questions. The district says they’re committed to keeping students safe.
“We are doing a thorough investigation. We’re looking at exactly what happened and what transpired afterwards as well. We take safety as a high priority,” said Lauren Snell, CCSD Public Information Officer.
The district says improvements are being made.
Staff has reviewed all safety protocols and additional supports were added.
Snell says they also changed the supervision areas that teacher assistants had on recess to make sure that all students are visible.
Parents say this is still far from being resolved.
“This is something that you fear as a parent. They’re in the custody of adults that are supposed to be trained professionals, and they weren’t. They categorically failed across the board, from the administration on site to the administration at Cherry Creek to the heads of security,” said White. “We’re asking for accountability.”
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