Denver Public Schools employee arrested for having gun on school grounds

It was the last day of February when word spread at the Bruce Randolph School in northeast Denver about a student with a gun.

A teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, described her classroom.

"I shut the door, locked the door, turned off the lights," she said. "I wanted the kids to be calm."

A student who claimed he had been harassed and threatened online took off before he could be searched for a gun. The teacher told CBS News Colorado she feared the worst.

"This was it, I have to save these kids, you know? They knew more about the drill than I did," she said.

Later in the day, a school paraprofessional employee, Dante Quint, was spotted with the student who had run away. A search of Quint's backpack revealed a .45 caliber handgun and ammunition. According to police, Quint claimed these to be his own. He's now charged with possessing a weapon on school grounds.

Two teachers told CBS News Colorado they are dismayed that the student was not expelled.

"The kid with the gun is still at the school and, as far as I know, still going to the school," one teacher said. "There's a lot of red tape to get a child expelled."

With the recent shootings of administrators at East High School and a student killed outside the school a few weeks before that, along with other factors, this teacher quit her job at the Bruce Randolph School.

"All around me. I live right by East High School and I- I'm kind of thinking I'm going to leave Denver," she said.

She said teachers have been pushing to make the school safer long before the most recent incidents.