Denver East High School dean shot by student speaks publicly for first time: "The moment Austin pulled that trigger, I forgave him"
One of the East High School deans who was shot by a student in March is sharing what happened that day. Jerald Mason told his story surrounded by parents pushing for safer schools.
"One thing that really bothers me is that my friend, Eric Sinclair, should have never been put in that position," said Mason about the other dean who was shot.
Mason says deans at EHS aren't trained to do pat-downs.
The morning of the shooting, Mason says Austin Lyle, a student at the time, walked into the school and Sinclair attempted to contact the assistant principal and a safety officer to conduct the search. Neither party answered. Sinclair escorted Lyle to another room and moments later he radioed Mason for help.
"Eric said 'Gun! Gun!' Austin fired off some shots, I think two or three shots. And when I grabbed Austin's arm he turned his wrist toward me and he fired two shots and he hit me. He broke away from me and he stood there staring at Eric and I, still pointing the gun at us. Then he ran out of the room," said Mason.
He said there should have been procedures put in place so that Sinclair didn't have to be alone with Lyle.
Weeks before the shooting, Mason says another student saw Lyle in class with a firearm and reported it to staff. Lyle ran out of school before staff could search him.
"If that's the case, then we should have had armed Safety Patrol there every morning that Austin came into the school because we know his history. Everybody here knows his history. They should have met Austin at the door with a show of force and maybe just maybe that would have stopped that behavior," said Mason.
Weapons got Lyle expelled from his previous school district. Parents like Teresa Peña say DPS is too lenient on discipline.
A parent safety advocacy group, P-SAG, says the district's safety plan draft is vague and doesn't address the root causes of school violence. At its core, P-SAG says the Safety Plan lacks acknowledgment of failures of the current system, specifically related to pat-down procedures, disciplinary policy, and risk stratification.
"What are best practices? Don't reinvent the wheel DPS. Take the best practices from other school districts and implement them," Peña said.
They say the district should consider firearms leading to mandatory expulsion. Transparency continues to be an issue.
"The fact that we can't even find out the number of students that require pat downs in our schools, and we're asking parents to send their babies there?" said Peña.
Mason doesn't know if school resource officers or metal detectors could've prevented the shooting.
He'll never know because East High didn't have them. And next year, there's a chance they still won't.
"These are things that could prevent school violence. I believe as a victim of school violence that there were things that we left on the table that should have been taken care of but weren't," said Mason. "The moment Austin pulled that trigger, I forgave him. The regret that I have right now is that he is not here for me to tell him that."
