East High School family issues plea for help to solve murder as calls continue for improved school safety in Colorado

A year after a student was killed outside East High School, his family is asking for help to solve his murder. Tuesday, Feb. 13, marked one year since Luis Garcia was killed. No charges have been filed in the case.

Garcia was a star soccer player and an incredibly hard worker says his family. The Garcias celebrated all life's events with Luis singing and dancing and always at the center.

Now the family feels shattered.

Super Bowl Sunday was especially tough since it was the last day a year ago the Garcias were all together.

Santos Garcia, Luis's father said as he fought back tears, "Day before yesterday I got up at midnight and I tried to go to the living room to see him again, but he's not there."

"It is absolutely never too late to do the right thing," said the family's attorney Matthew Barringer as he urged individuals with knowledge of the crime to relay information to Denver Police, "Their son did nothing to deserve this horrific act, this murder in front of his own high school. If you are that person, and I'm talking to you, if you are that person, please contact the Denver Police Department."

The family praised the work of Denver police homicide investigators.

Denver police say while they have made considerable progress, they have not yet filed the case with the district attorney.

Luis Garcia's death and another shooting that injured two deans at East High School sparked an outcry last year to improve student safety in Denver Public Schools.

After a 2020 school board vote to remove school resource officers, Garcia's death spurred East students and families to demand their return.

Luis's father Santos Garcia is happy to see other students feel safer. He just wishes his son had been similarly protected.

"If they have that car those guys right there like police department right there my son still alive," Garcia said.

East High School is the only DPS school with two school resource officers. Other high schools have one. 

Students and families say there is a marked difference in the climate at East High School this year. Students do feel safer.

But one parent says that feeling masks ongoing safety concerns. 

"I think that the district realizes that they cannot let one iota of problem occur at East so it's changed as a result of having two SROS in one school," said parent Steve Katsaros, a member of the Parent Student Advocacy Group at East, although he said he was offering his own opinions and not representing the group.

Katsaros says DPS needs to go further to prevent a tragedy like Garcia's from happening again.

"My personal opinion as evidenced by the violence that continues to rock schools throughout Denver is no the district has not done enough," said Katsaros.

Katsaros says the issue is how DPS addresses student discipline. The perception by students is that the consequences for acts of violence are lax.

A committee working to review the DPS discipline matrix is at work now but Katsaros says the effort lacks a sense of urgency.

"I don't want to be the Garcia family and I don't want my neighbors to have to live that hell. I don't want any kid in our community to have to endure any assault much less to be murdered as they're leaving their school," said Katsaros.

On Tuesday, DPS said the revised discipline matrix is expected later this spring, with staff training scheduled for this August.

The district said it has tried to compare its discipline practices to other large districts so it looked at Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles schools among others.

DPS added that the schools chosen to receive SROs is based on data, including the number of students in a building and the number of responses by law enforcement to those schools.