Highlands Ranch Herald 0709

Page 1

July 9, 2020

FREE

DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | SPORTS: PAGE 16

VOLUME 33 | ISSUE 33

Killer gets life sentence in case from 1980 Slaying of Helene Pruszynski left loved ones with pain for decades BY ELLIOTT WENZLER EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

The assistant principal grew so distraught about managing the matter internally that she believed she was experiencing secondary trauma, according to interviews and statements from school staff cited in the incident reports. The reports do not say that any adults were involved in sexual contact with children at the school. School district employees named in the investigative reports did not respond to several requests for comment. A Douglas County School District spokesperson provided a statement regarding the investigation on June 26 and asked Colorado Community Media to stop trying to contact the school employees directly about the matter.

It has been 40 years since Helene Pruszynski was killed, but for her family and friends, it might as well have been yesterday. That was the theme of a July 1 sentencing for the man who pleaded guilty to raping and killing the young woman. Pruszynski was kidnapped Jan. 16, 1980 after getting off an RTD bus in Englewood. The 21-year-old had recently traveled to Colorado from Massachusetts for an internship with KHOW radio. She had dreams of becoming a journalist. The morning after her disappearance, she was found dead in a field in Douglas County. Deputies from the Douglas County Sheriff ’s Office arrested James Curtis Clanton, 62, in December of last year after cracking the case using genetic genealogy. After he was arrested, he admitted to the crime and pleaded guilty in February. On July 1, he was sentenced by Douglas County District Court Judge Theresa Slade to life in prison. He has a chance to receive parole after serving at least 20 years, she said. During the hearing, Pruszynski’s loved ones spoke about the impact the crime had on their lives. “I cannot find the words to accurately express the pain, the anguish,

SEE SCHOOL, P4

SEE COLD CASE, P10

SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGE

‘I don’t feel safe’: A school’s nightmare How educators responded to alleged sexual contact by first-graders BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A principal has left the Douglas County School District for another job in education, months after his school became embroiled in a “failure to report” investigation into alleged “sexual contact” by first-grade children at the school. Witness accounts detailed in Douglas County Sheriff ’s Office incident reports obtained by Colorado Community Media from officials alleged that young students at Sand Creek Elementary School in Highlands

Ranch persuaded and pressured other young students into inappropriate touching and exposing private body parts. Children involved in the alleged incidents were as young as age 6, the reports said. The incidents are believed to have begun in October and continued into February before school staff became aware, according to the incident reports. The case exposed confusion regarding mandatory reporting among school employees, particularly at the administrative level. The school’s assistant principal alleged she repeatedly asked her principal if they should involve law enforcement, while the principal maintained they could handle the situation administratively and directed her to oversee the school’s response, according to the incident reports.

FIRE DESTROYS HOMES The blaze engulfed four buildings under construction, then spread to a fifth and nearby brush P6

GET WILD AND WOOLLY

COVID-19 is still around, but there’s no need to shy away from safe summer activities for the whole family P14


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Highlands Ranch Herald 0709 by Colorado Community Media - Issuu