English teacher of slain Denver East High School student proposes safety changes

An English teacher at East High School has suggestions for how to make schools safer. His student Luis Garcia was fatally shot just hours after sharing a poem in class where he expressed concerns about safety.

Andy Bucher is still trying to process what happened this past February and what should change so it doesn't happen again.

There was an outpouring of grief and love following the shooting of Garcia, a junior who was a devoted student and championship soccer player.

Bucher says Garcia recited a poem in his English literature class the same day he was shot, "And in this poem, he said the second to last line was 'My city is getting shot because you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.'"

In the confusion following the shooting, Bucher's students pieced together what happened to their beloved classmate.

He told us, "The whole class, we thought this was just poetic, not prophetic and it was hard to process. It still is now."

Bucher is committed to keeping the memory of Garcia alive in his teaching, but he also thinks there's much more the schools and city can do.

"I think it would be wonderful to return the Esplanade to city park, shut it down," he said.

The Esplanade in front of East -  it's on this street where Garcia was parked and preparing to leave campus when he was mortally wounded by gunfire.

Bucher added, "I think we could close that down and put another limitation on accessing the building, but also make it a more safe and walkable and pedestrian-friendly environment."

The return of school resource officers this year will provide some measure of comfort, but Bucher says not doing more to protect children would be absurd.

He said, "We maybe need to change the way we live. And if that means hiring more people for a metal detector, or if that means shutting down the street for more walkability, but limiting the access. I would choose that over more violence."

We asked Superintendent Alex Marrero about Bucher's suggestion and he said he's open to changes to the Esplanade, but warns it could pose a major challenge for traffic and parking.  And he says the idea does not address the root cause of youth violence, which he'd like to work with the city to address.