Another Arapahoe High Guard Says School Shooting Was Preventable
LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) - An Arapahoe High School security guard says the deadly school shooting that took place last December could have been prevented.
On Monday afternoon Christina Kolk talked about the shooting that killed 17-year-old student Claire Davis. Kolk said school administrators should have heeded her warnings. Her statements are not new, but she went before cameras with an attorney by her side and documents designed to back her claims.
When the shooting took place there was one name that quickly came to the minds of many students and staff of who might be responsible -- Karl Pierson. Kolk presented his disciplinary records and recounted her warnings about him to administrators.
"Do you believe if the school district had listened to you Claire Davis might be alive today?" CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked Kolk.
"I believe she might be, yes, because I think there would have been more steps involved to help Karl," Kolk responded.
Davis was shot as Pierson entered the school. He then went looking for speech and debate coach Tracy Murphy.
Kolk's reports show two months earlier Pierson had threatened to kill Murphy after being demoted from a captain on the debate team. She outlined other incidents in which Pierson had knives and was looking at guns on a computer. She then recalled coming face-to-face with him on the day of the shooting.
"There he is with a gun pointed right at us and Cameron grabbed my shoulder, threw me up towards the hallway, and that's when we started pounding on doors saying, 'lockdown, lockdown,' making sure doors were locked," Kolk said.
The sheriff's report on the shooting noted that Pierson was evaluated as a low risk.
"The school's stubborn unwillingness to take Karl Pierson's situation and the situation of other students seriously was of increasing concern to Kristina," Kolk's attorney Dan Recht said.
Kolk was suspended. Recht believes it was for blowing the whistle on prior security issues after the deadly shooting occurred.
Kolk is the second Arapahoe High School security guard to come forward with such claims. She is now suspended with pay for "violating protocol," according to Kolk. The school district did not return CBS4's requests for comment.
