12-13-18 Villager E ediiton

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VOLUME 37 • NUMBER 3 • DECEMBER 13, 2018

Since 1982

www.villagerpublishing.com

TheVillagerNewspaper

@VillagerDenver

Greater community celebrates the holiday season at GV City Hall Sydney Draudt, 4 and Sophia Daudt, 2, sat with Santa as he held 4-week-old brother Austin. Along with mom and dad Michael and Gina, longtime GV residents and proud grandparents Carol and Bob Perry were on hand to enjoy the festivities. Photo by Freda Miklin

For the past 30 years, Greenwood Village, a diverse and welcoming city, has been holding the Mayor’s Holiday Lighting ceremony in December for the greater GV community. It started out as Santa Claus giving out cookies. The 2018 version is complete with games, snacks, and crafts for children, Continued on page 11

Anniversary of students deaths at AHS brings up conversation about mental health It happened Dec. 13, 2013. As the five-year mark of the tragic loss of two Arapahoe High School (AHS) seniors to gun violence approached, Littleton Public Schools’ (LPS) leadership arranged to have a frank conversation about how the school dis-

trict has applied what it has learned since that awful day when a shooter took Claire Davis’ life, then his own. Natalie Pramenko, AHS principal was in her second year as principal when the tragedy unfolded. She listed positive changes adopted since that day. Doors are kept strategically locked. Arapahoe County Sheriff

Dave Walcher provides two dedicated full-time student resource officers (SRO’s). The entire school security team meets weekly. There is a new focus on mental health and creating and maintaining strong connections between individual students and staff members. It is easier for teachers to obtain and share students’ disciplinary histo-

ry within AHS. Cell phones are no longer allowed in the classroom to give students a respite from social media. Programs started at AHS include suicide prevention, parent drug and alcohol education, defined threat assessment procedures, and enhancing the SafeTo-Tell program, which has saved dozens of lives

when teens reported friends who threatened suicide. Nate Thompson, LPS director of social, emotional, and behavior services, talked about an LPS program that allows schools to connect students and families with mental health practitioners when necessary even if they family cannot afford

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