Castle Rock family to sue school district over racist bullying

BY MCKENNA HARFORD MHARFORD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A Castle Rock family is planning to take legal action against the Douglas County School District over its handling of repeated instances of racism targeting Black and biracial students at Castle Rock Middle School.

Lacey Ganzy, whose eighth-grade son Jeramiah was called racial slurs and threatened in a student group chat, reported the issue to school and district administrators on April 20. Since then, Ganzy said only one student involved has been suspended. Ganzy has not returned Jeramiah to school, fearing for his safety. He is completing the semester online.

Jeramiah said the past few weeks have been di cult.

“I just feel alone now,” he said. “ ey treat it as a joke and nobody really understands how it feels.”

Ganzy said she is taking legal action because she doesn’t feel the district is responding appropriately to the threats her son faced.

“I think that the way society is going and with the crimes in our school district, it’s imperative that I take those threats seriously,” she said.

In a past statement, the school district said it couldn’t comment on details of discipline related to speci c students, but said administrators are handling the complaint pursuant to the student code of conduct and school board policies.

“It is our goal to take care of each and every one of our students in our district,” the statement said. “We appreciate the Ganzy family bringing their concerns to us so we can make sure our system is addressing their needs.”

Iris Halpern, Ganzy’s attorney, said the family anticipates ling a civil rights lawsuit in federal court.

Halpern recently represented former Douglas County superintendent Corey Wise, who led a complaint against the school district with the Colorado O ce of Civil

Douglas County deputies investigate gunshots near I-25, E-470

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A large group of Douglas County sheri ’s personnel responded to an area near Interstate 25 and the E-470 toll highway after reports of shots being red, according to the Douglas County Sheri ’s O ce.

Two people exchanged gun re on May 3 at the intersection of Inverness Parkway and Jamaica Street, according to Sheri Darren Weekly. Witnesses and security camera footage observed the shooting, he said.

“We believe these two individuals were just shooting it out with each other,” Weekly said, adding that authorities don’t think the incident targeted the public.

e next day, Douglas County sheri ’s detectives came to the area of Jamaica and Inverness Parkway to execute a search warrant, the sheri ’s o ce tweeted at 5:20 p.m. May 4.

“Out of an abundance of caution, they have sent out a Code Red shelter-in-place noti cation,” the tweet said.

e sheri ’s o ce tweeted just before 8 p.m. May 4 that the shelterin-place noti cation had been lifted.

e o ce did not con rm whether detectives executed the search warrant on the residence of a suspect in the shooting.

“ ere isn’t much we are releasing now due to the nature of the investigation. We executed a search warrant based on information we discovered,” said Deputy Cocha Heyden, a sheri ’s o ce spokesperson. “ e suspect has not been arrested. At this point we cannot disclosed what was discovered.”

None of the suspects in the shooting have been arrested, and the investigation is ongoing, Heyden said at about 10 p.m. May 4.

Authorities received a call just before 2 p.m. on May 3 about the incident, and multiple 911 calls came in total, Weekly said. The incident occurred northeast of the I-25 and E-470 interchange, south of County Line Road in the Lone Tree area.

One of the shooters was in a dark-colored sedan and is believed to have had a handgun, according to Weekly. e other, on foot, was

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