Police have presence at Aspen schools campus

ASPEN — It is a regular morning at Aspen High School, and several students are gathered around a popular YouTube video of an angry Baltimore cop harassing a young skateboarder.

Here’s the twist: The students are being shown the video by an Aspen police officer and Pitkin County Sheriff’s deputy. The two law enforcement officers are their teachers for a class titled Street Law.

This year, for the first time, there are two full-time, permanent teaching officers from both local agencies on the Aspen campus. Terry Leitch, an officer and juvenile crime detective with the Aspen Police Department (APD) and Paul Huffnagle, a deputy with the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, are assigned to the school campus for the foreseeable future.

For years the campus had one permanent police officer and one rotating officer, both from the APD, Superintendent Diana Sirko said. More recently, that was reduced to one rotating APD shift, Leitch said. But the rotating officers struggled to get to know the students, he said.

So this year, the police department made the rotating position a permanent one. Leitch, a former substitute teacher, soccer coach and 20-year police officer, was chosen to fill it.

The sheriff’s office decided last year that since the campus is in the county, it ought to send someone there, Huffnagle said. The deputy, who is trained in juvenile crime, left his position at the Snowmass Village Police Department specifically to take the position.

The two spend their days helping students understand how alcohol impairs their motor coordination, giving high-fives in the hallways and attending football games and school dances.

The agencies are funding the program, and each are paying their own employee.

“I think, for everyone, things are always subject to budget appropriations,” Sirko said. “But there’s been a commitment to try to have them be enduring positions.”

Street Law

“Tell me what happened good last night,” says Leitch, as a preface to class, slapping a roll of papers against his hand.

A student gives the answer he’s looking for: the Red Sox won.

Then Leitch leads into a spirited discussion of New York Mets pitcher Ambiorix Burgos’s arrest in the Dominican Republic. Burgos allegedly killed two women in a hit-and-run accident.

Swiftly, he moves to the topic at hand: The current trend of combining energy drinks and alcohol. Using a question-and-answer strategy, Leitch emphasizes that although energy drinks may mask the effects of alcohol, the person is just as intoxicated.

After another discussion on the stages of intoxication, Leitch brings the students to the gymnasium, where they spend a half-hour on a lesson Leitch calls “beer goggles and basketball.” Wearing sets of “beer goggles” that mimic either a 0.08 or 1.5 blood alcohol content, the students attempt to shoot baskets and perform roadside maneuvers.

As students take turns trying to walk heel-to-toe on a line wearing the beer goggles — most of them wiggling, bobbing and falling over — laughter fills the gym.

Huffnagle asks the students if they feel like they’re capable of driving with the beer goggles on, and he gets a chorus of “no’s.”

“You say ‘no’ now. But what are you going to do Friday night? Keep that in the back of your head,” he tells them.

“I think if you ignore [drugs and alcohol] and tell them they can’t do it, I think you’re pushing them toward it,” said Huffnagle after the class.

“We don’t stand up there and say ‘Don’t do this,’” Leitch said.

“Our theme,” explained Huffnagle, “is kind of ‘make the right choice.’”

Statewide, school resource officers are common. But Huffnagle and Leitch believe they are the only school resource officers in the state who actually teach a class.

School presence

Huffnagle said that the two try to never have a regular, predictable schedule in the morning, because historically, violent acts at schools tend to happen at that time of day.

On a recent morning, Leitch greeted students in front of the high school, while Huffnagle headed over to the Tiehack lot, where the juniors park, and then to Glen Eagle, where neighbors have complained about students parking.

At lunchtime, and again at the end of the day, they’re back out talking to students and learning names.

“The biggest thing is to be seen,” said Huffnagle. “I think a lot of our day is spent just trying to interact with kids.”

If there is a game or event after school, Huffnagle or Leitch tries to attend.

At the beginning of the year, both officers went to every elementary class to introduce themselves. Later, they’ll teach a short safety class to the students, in part just to maintain a presence in the classrooms. They walk the elementary school halls, too, and recently started a program in which they hand out tokens to elementary school kids caught in the act of doing something good. The tokens can be redeemed at the Aspen Chamber Resort Association for coupons for ice cream and movies.

At the high school, the two are charged with giving away a $1,000 scholarship at the end of the year to a student they see as deserving. The scholarship is funded by their respective agencies.

The two hope their time spent getting to know students now will help them when they encounter the students later — whatever the situation.

Leitch gives one example: Just recently he was called in after a juvenile arrest. He was able to take over the case and talk to the parents and student a little more easily, since he already knew the youth, he said.

“The kids typically relate and talk to us differently than that arresting officer,” he said. Because of that relationship, he believes the two may have a head start when it comes to helping the student make better choices in the future.

Safety

Every Monday in their class, the two talk about current events. One topic they say they try to cover is school shootings. The discussions give them an opportunity to focus on what the students should do if such a thing were ever to happen in Aspen.

“It’s in the front of everybody’s mind. That’s one of the reasons, unfortunately, that we’re in the schools,” Huffnagle said.

Later this year, the two will orchestrate a simulated school shooting at the campus as a practical exercise for local law enforcement and medical staff —using volunteers from the drama club as victims.

“There’s kids everywhere,” Huffnagle said of previous exercises. “The kids think it’s great.”

Fortunately, the most they’ve had to handle so far are a few incidents of criminal mischief on campus.

And they hope that their groundwork will prevent them from ever having to meet students in a more serious situation.

At the end of the Street Law class, Huffnagle asks about away games this weekend and is told there is one in Parachute.

“That’s a long drive,” he says, holding up the beer goggles. “So if you make that drive, leave these at home.”

kredding@aspentimes.com