Upset students and parents ask Boulder Valley to review after alleged school threat

Parents and students went to Boulder Valley's school board Tuesday night with concerns about school safety after the arrest of a former student for alleged threats on Fairview High School.

Esteban Yegian, 18, is facing charges of inciting destruction of life or property and interference with staff, faculty or students of educational institutions.

An affidavit indicates that on Oct. 19, a parent called to report disturbing images and quotes on social media. One of them on Instagram showed Yegian and nine students whose faces were cropped onto the image were in an "inferno type scene," in which Yegian appears to be holding a shotgun. A quote appeared with the posting: "Unbeknownst to you, you 've caused more misery than your worth. Your ashes have more numerical value then your existence. MY WILL BE DONE."

Police went to talk to Yegian the morning of the 19th, but at the school, word began to spread of the alleged threat.

"It was all over social media before the school even announced anything," one student said to the school board. "No one even knew what to do. Teachers didn't know what was happening so they were telling kids all different information."

One parent read the board a letter from her daughter, who she said was one of those in the threatening posting: "A simple conversation with nine students letting them know to stay home would have been the right thing to do and the chaos and fear that happened on Wednesday wouldn't have happened."

District Superintendent Rob Anderson admitted there were shortcomings.

"Just communication wasn't fast enough," he said. "I would say that we got the 'Safe to Tell' around 8:20 in the morning. By 9 a.m., police had found the suspect and were already engaging."

But students and families didn't know.

"You know in hindsight, I actually think the police did an extraordinary job of tackling the situation.  And the school may have as well. But from the standpoint of being a parent or a student or a faculty member, those communications were not concise, they weren't crisp, they weren't timely," said one parent Suzanne Stoller. "And as a result, it just felt like there was just pure chaos."

Families asked for a close review of not only communication, but some called for the return of school resource officers, which the district has dropped, while others felt the incident did not show the need.

School board members promised to consider the arguments and have a hard look at the communication at the school the day the alleged threats emerged.

"Even though the threat never felt close to physically being there, you all didn't know that. And so I look forward to a way we're going to improve that kind of communication," said School Board Member Kitty Sargent.

"When we're trying to verify information look at images, verify where the students are in schools, we just have to be faster," said Anderson.