BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) — A 14-year-old boy charged with threatening to shoot and bomb Casey Middle School in Boulder had behavior issues long before his May 25 arrest.
FOX31 is not naming the boy because he’s charged as a juvenile, but the Problem Solvers have learned at least four female students have filed protection orders against him related to the time he was their classmate at Eldorado PK-8 School in Superior.
“There were rape threats, punching, hitting. He stabbed my daughter in the back with a pencil. He would just randomly trip you,” said one mother, who was one of three parents to speak to the Problem Solvers on the condition of anonymity.
Both the mom and her daughter have filed for protection orders against the boy.
“He’s a threat to this community, and I do not see that his behavior is going to change,” the mother said.
“My daughter was bruised by this student,” the father of another girl told FOX31. That girl’s mom said that “for months, she had sat at the dinner table and cried to me about how he had made threats to her at school or to her friends.”
Those parents also filed for a protection order on behalf of their daughter.
‘Completely unsurprised’ by boy’s arrest over threats
The three parents said they were not surprised to learn the 14-year-old boy who harassed their daughters and others at Eldorado would later face a felony charge related to his new school.
The 14-year-old was transferred to Casey Middle School in January. He’s been charged with interference with an educational institution, a misdemeanor, and inciting destruction of life or property, a felony.
Boulder Police arrested the boy Wednesday, May 25, after executing a search warrant at his home following a tip that he threatened to carry out an attack at Casey Middle School on Thursday, May 26, the last day of the school year.
“I knew he would do more bad things,” the first mother said.
“Completely unsurprised” is how the father of the second girl described his reaction to the boy’s arrest.
The parents told FOX31 the boy’s behavior at Eldorado PK-8 only escalated from the time of their first complaints in September until December, when he was finally banned from the school.
The mother of the second girl said the boy would walk up to her daughter “in the hallway and pretend that he was going to punch her in the face, and then he had an adult chaperone with him at the time when he was doing this.”
That girl’s father added, “There was an altercation during a gym class, and he punched her and he threw her to the ground.”
The first girl’s mom said, “The threat to find where she lived, harm her family and rape her kind of took it to another level.”
Parents worry Eldorado PK-8 School downplayed concerns
The parents who spoke with the Problem Solvers felt school leaders downplayed their concerns until mid-December, when a Title IX investigation was launched after parents say at least a dozen girls filled out “Bullying Complaint” forms.
FOX31 reviewed a form filled out by of the girls, who listed numerous complaints about the boy to include the following:
- “Abuse: punching, slapping, kicking, hitting, slamming against walls/lockers, shoving on the ground (this leaves bruises and marks on the body)
- Sexual requests: asking to touch inappropriate parts
- Forcing for sexual things to be done
- Telling people to kill themselves
- Body shaming
- Touching private parts/other body parts without consent
- Racist
- Homophobic
- Saying slurs: R slur, F slur
- Calling women “whores, hoes, and sluts”
- Calling people rude and cruel names
- Purposely targets girls to bully
- Threatens to hurt or rape
- Brags about wealthiness
- Grabs you by the wrists and hair
- All of these situations have happened for years to many girls, but this has progressively gotten worse over time ever since the beginning of this school year.”
The Eldorado parents said they didn’t know where the boy was moved to in January until they learned of his arrest for threats toward Casey Middle School.
“I think it (the school transfer) was the school district’s way of sweeping it under the rug and being like, OK, great, someone else’s problem,” the mom of the second girl said.
The mom of the first girl told the Problem Solvers, “I spoke to a police officer who said he (the 14-year old boy) did the same thing at Casey, second semester, and then made the shooting threat for graduation.”
Just one week before the Casey Middle School graduation, the mom of the second girl said the boy shot at her daughter’s bedroom window.
“The house has been the victim of basically paintball-type guns, little air rifle pellets aimed at my daughter’s window recently,” she said.
911 calls happen same day as Uvalde school shooting
Boulder Police dispatch records obtained by the Problem Solvers show four calls made to 911 related to Casey Middle School on May 24.
FOX31 filed a public records request for summaries of the call notes, but Boulder Police denied the request because it said they were part of a pending investigation.
This is the information available about the 911 calls:
- The first call at 10:42 a.m. was listed as a suspicious call.
- A second call made at 12:11 p.m. is listed as a Safe2Tell Report.
- The third call at 9:06 p.m. was listed as related to a restraining order.
- The fourth and final call at 10:52 p.m. was again labeled a suspicious call.
The four calls took place on the same day as the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
“I kind of feel a little bit like if this awful thing that happened in Texas hadn’t happened, would this be where we’re at right now? Would it have been taken as seriously?” said the first mother.
The father of the second girl agreed, “Unfortunately I think it was the shooting in Texas that really finally caused action to occur.”
The mom of the second girl added, “I think even the district attorney has said this child has hit every single red flag for a tragic event occurring.”
Boy’s online activities show warning signs
That mom is referring to the boy’s second court hearing on Tuesday, where Deputy District Attorney Brad Turner revealed the boy had gone online to view beheadings and bomb-making instructions and had a photo of a person with an AR-15 rifle.
At his first court hearing last week, the boy’s defense attorney, Jim Kenney, insisted the 14-year-old had no plan and no access to guns, although it was revealed his father kept two guns in a safe.
“People can get access. Even if there’s a safe you can still get in. There’s other ways to get guns. I mean just look at the news,” the first mom said.
The second mom said she found little comfort in knowing the boy’s father kept his guns in a safe.
“I don’t think you can truly trust a safe. Children can break into things. He’s probably had access to it in the past,” she said.
The Title IX investigation pushed for by the parents of at least five Eldorado girls determined the 14-year-old boy would not be allowed to attend Monarch High School or Boulder High School, the two high schools that might be attended by the five Eldorado girls who participated in the Title IX investigation.
But the parents of those girls said they’ve learned the boy might simply be transferred again to a different school within the Boulder Valley School District.
“Now you’re just expanding the number of people that have basically been subjected to him. There’s parents in here that are scared, they’re really scared, and the students are scared,” the first mother said.
“I think this is a student who needs special help and attention from professionals. He cannot remain enrolled in a normal school population,” said the father of the second girl, who added he thought the boy should have been expelled from the district months ago.
Boulder Valley School District responds
Boulder Valley School District spokesperson Randy Barber told FOX31 in an email:
“The Boulder Valley School District takes the safety of our students very seriously. We investigate all safety concerns and have a threat assessment process that coordinates across schools and departments. We also have reporting and investigation processes for Title IX, bullying and discrimination.
Boulder Valley School District spokesperson
We work closely with our law enforcement partners and cooperate fully with any police investigations. Due to federal student privacy laws, there are limitations and conditions to what information can be provided by the school district and when to law enforcement.
Whenever possible, we try to resolve issues in the school community, but there are a variety of reasons that a child may be moved, including the needs of the student (academic, social emotional, etc.), the needs of other students, and parent/guardian requests. In some cases it can be multiple reasons.”
District Court Judge Andrew Hartman has rejected a request by the boy’s defense attorney to release him to the custody of his parents until the boy undergoes a threat assessment and psychological evaluation.
The 14-year remains in juvenile detention until his next court hearing on Monday.
Read more investigations from the FOX31 Problem Solvers here.
