AURORA, Colo. — Aurora Public Schools will begin enforcing new regulations at its high schools following two recent shootings involving students.
Julie Miera lives across the street from Hinkley High School and was working from home when the shooting happened in the school’s parking lot.
"I went to the window, I saw kids running, I saw a few kids drop, and just a lot of screaming, a lot of chaos," said Miera.
It’s for that reason she says her family will be moving and her young daughter won’t be attending Hinkley High School in the future.
"I couldn't, in good faith — as a parent — send my kid to somewhere with that amount of violence and lack of safety measures," said Miera.
Down the street, Rosa Martinez agrees and hopes the new regulations are actually enforced.
Martinez, who only speaks Spanish, says she hopes schools actually apply these restrictions because if they do, it will make parents feel more at ease that their kids are safe.
In aletter sent from Aurora Public Schools to parents, the district says they will be increasing security at all high school campuses, and that high school students won’t be allowed to leave campus during the school day — including to parking lots — without permission. Counseling support will also be available to students. Officials said these protocols will be maintained until Winter Break.
Martinez says she wasn’t surprised by the last shooting at Hinkley. She said three weeks ago she went to speak with school administrators about her concerns, and they told her they couldn’t keep track of every student, but what she could do was move her daughter to a different school.
In the end, Martinez says she did just that.
A spokesperson with the Aurora Police Department says they’ll have school resource officers in the schools as well as other officers from other teams and units increasing their patrols around the high school.