By Mitch Pugh
Camera Staff Writer

BROOMFIELD — The father of a 5-year-old former Aspen Creek K-8 student said Monday that three other students were sexually assaulted by a 6-year-old boy at the school, according to parents of those alleged victims.

Casey Beyers, the 5-year-old boy's father, said the school was aware of incidents involving the 6-year-old boy and a female student as early as September. In addition, Beyers said, the 6-year-old was involved in two more incidents with female students after a November incident with his son.

Boulder Valley School District officials, meanwhile, are disputing key claims in a lawsuit filed by the Beyers family against the district.

The parents of the 5-year-old former student filed suit in district court in Boulder on May 24, claiming their son was sexually assaulted by another boy during an after-school child-care program sponsored by the district at the school. The lawsuit claims the boy had been forced to repeatedly engage in oral and anal sex and "other sexual misconduct of an extreme sort" by another student while locked in a boy's bathroom stall.

The suit also claims the incidents occurred in November 2001 but that the parents of the boy were not notified until Jan. 29.

Janelle Albertson, spokeswoman for the district, said the parents were notified as soon as the school became aware of the incidents in January. Albertson also said the 5-year-old boy and the 6-year-old boy referred to in the lawsuit were engaging in "mutual contact."

"There was no perpetrator in this incident," Albertson said.

Beyers said in addition to the alleged incident with his son in November, the 6-year-old has been accused by parents of similar behavior with three other students — all female — during the school year.

"This is something that should not be allowed to occur in public schools," Beyers said.

Albertson said the district has still not been served with the lawsuit. In addition, Albertson and Aspen Creek principal Scott Winston said several safety precautions were taken in the wake of the incident involving Beyers' son, and several policies were changed.

Winston said two additional after-school staff members were hired, and bathroom break procedures were altered to ensure students weren't left in the bathrooms unsupervised. The students involved were also monitored closely by school administration and teachers.

"Not only did we increase our staff, but we increased the monitoring of our bathroom procedures — even during the regular school day," Winston said.

Parents of children in the after-school program and parents of children in kindergarten and first grade were notified of the incident by their children's teachers, Winston said.

Albertson said the district did not conduct an investigation into the incident. Instead, the district reported it to the Broomfield County Department of Health and Human Services and acted based on the department's findings.

"As soon as we knew about it, we picked up the phone and reported it," Albertson said. "Those parents and their attorney met face-to-face with the teacher involved and our attorneys. They were allowed to ask any questions they wanted. The teacher answered each question. We know of no other information about the incident they didn't get from the teacher."

Winston said monitoring of the students ceased in February at the recommendation of Health and Human Services officials. The 6-year-old was reported to the agency again in March after contact with another student, but Winston said the agency found those claims to be unfounded.

"That was just a case of us being hyper-vigilant," Winston said.

Winston and Albertson said they had no knowledge of any incidents prior to January.

In the meantime, Albertson said, parents can be assured that their children are safe at Aspen Creek.

"We acted immediately, and we acted appropriately," she said.

June 4, 2002

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