A group of parents pressed Jeffco Public Schools on Friday over several multiple sexual assault allegations within the past year and a case involving a child pornography investigation.

The parents — from a group called Jeffco Kids First — also claimed it uncovered 26 total cases of sexual abuse, misconduct, grooming, hiring, firing and reporting issues since 2022 in the district.

Lindsay Datko, who launched Jeffco Kids First, and 10 family members of victims and private investigators showed up at a packed auditorium at the Jefferson County School District building in Golden on Thursday night, demanding action from the school board members. Down the hall, an overflow room was filled with spectators and a line of residents waited outside for a spot in the packed meeting.

A spokesperson with Jeffco Public Schools told The Denver Gazette via email Friday that the district does not know where the 26-count list came from, but that officials would be happy to look into it and comment if Jeffco Kids First gave them the list.

“Student safety, our shared responsibility is a shared mission of staff, students, families and the community to enhance student safety within Jeffco,” the spokesperson said.

Datko and others said they’ve heard similar talk for months but have seen little action.

“Jeffco must act swiftly to address these threats that deceive and divide families and endanger children,” Datko told the school board. “Jeffco must restore parental and guardian trust through adequate reporting, erring on the side of child safety, and consistent, accountable solutions that strictly follow sound processes, policies and laws.”

One spectator yelled from the back of the room at the meeting: “You need to keep children safe!”

Back in February, the school district said it’s continuing to work on improving the safety of children, even bringing in local law enforcement partners and the Ralston House — a local nonprofit that works with children who have been sexually abused — to act as consultants in its handling of both policy and hiring procedures.

The parents said the problems come from the top and accused officials of a lack of oversight and discipline, adding the district has in place troubling policies potentially leading to similar cases in the future.

“Jeffco doesn’t have boundaries,” Valerie Leal, a Jeffco mom who formerly represented charter schools on Jeffco’s district accountability committee, told The Denver Gazette. “They don’t have clear boundaries of what is or isn’t appropriate behavior between staff and children.”

21,900 texts between special needs staffer and 16-year-old student

First Judicial District Judge Chantel Contiguglia sentenced 28-year-old former Jefferson County paraprofessional Imagine Kay Ewer to four years in prison Jan. 31 for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student.

Ewer, who worked in a special needs classroom, started the relationship with the student around Nov. 30, 2023. She was initially sent home on administrative leave after a note was found on the student’s paperwork using explicit words to describe someone named “Imagine,” according to arrest records.

In November 2023, the school rearranged Ewer’s schedule because she was showing “favoritism” to the student, with witnesses saying she was “overly familiar and friendly with students,” the arrest records said.

Investigators found around 21,900 texts between Ewer and the student on Dec. 11, 2023. They talked about sexual acts, smoking marijuana and doing cocaine or fentanyl together.

Ewer eventually pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor and sexual assault on a child by an individual in a position of trust.

That was the first in several cases, in which school staffers had been accused of sexually assaulting students.

Coach, care worker, social worker arrested following sex assault allegations 

Luis Fernando Robles-Luevanos, 29, was arrested on Feb. 15, 2024 by the Lakewood Police Department after allegedly assaulting two boys under 15 at Creighton Middle School, according to his arrest affidavit.

Robles-Luevanos worked as a family liaison and coach for the school for around three years, acting as a translator for Spanish-speaking families.

The suspect allegedly brought the boys into his office and performed an “exam,” according to arrest records. He was charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and one count of criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a third child.

Justin Martinez, an afterschool care programs worker for multiple schools in the district, was arrested in May 2024 over allegations of sexual assault on a child.

Martinez’s arrest records are still sealed as of April, according to the Jefferson County Combined Court.

Meanwhile, Chloe Castro, 28, was arrested by the Arvada Police Department on Nov. 6, 2024, on suspicion of sexual assault on a child in a position of trust with a pattern of abuse after she allegedly began sending inappropriate messages to a 14-year-old she met while he was in sixth grade.

Castro is married.

The two discussed moving to New Mexico or California together when the boy turns 18 to start a new life, according to arrest records.

Jeffco Kids First claimed that the district was involved in a previous settlement with Castro and another family.

Datko said there were 26 incidents regarding misconduct, grooming or related incidents between 2022 and 2024, including the sexual assault cases and the following:

• A cheer coach bringing students into the coach’s hotel room

• A teacher falsely claiming a student was homeless to have the student move in with him

• A teacher who allegedly violated directives not to be alone with students over a 14-year career, including multiple suspensions

Thirteen of the employees involved were terminated or resigned, eight continued to work in the district and five of their statuses are unknown, according to Jeffco Kids First.

“There are serious hiring problems. They do not fire them. They don’t report them appropriately to CDE (Colorado Department of Education),” Datko said.

Datko pointed to the case in which a teacher was allegedly suspended throughout 14 years. She claimed that he eventually resigned, but his resignation wasn’t reported to the state education department for two months.

She also said his teaching license remains active.

“The district has taken and will continue to take immediate action when alerted to any unsafe individual in our schools, including separating the individual from contact with students, participating with and undertaking investigations and swift personnel action when necessary,” the district’s spokesperson told The Denver Gazette. “We take and will continue to take immediate action when alerted to anything or anyone unsafe in our schools.”

Chief of schools under investigation

The Chief of Schools for the district, David Weiss, was terminated Dec. 19, 2024. At the time, neither the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office nor Jeffco Public Schools announced that a criminal investigation had begun.

Days later, the sheriff’s office noted that it was conducting an investigation into Weiss that involved possession of child sexual assault material.

Weiss shot and killed himself while in Washington County, Md., on Jan. 1, 2025, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Maryland.

The investigation into Weiss will continue, authorities said.

“Processing forensic evidence is a very long, complicated thing and our investigators are still waiting on the results from some of the evidence they had to outsource for processing,” sheriff’s office spokesperson Karlyn Tilley told The Denver Gazette on March 27. “We want to do a thorough job with the investigation because our commitment is to any potential victims that may be out there.”

Jeffco officials ‘publicly affirm’ crime against a child is ‘inexcusable’ following retreat

A spokesperson with Jeffco Public Schools said this investigation is unrelated to any students or schools in the district.

“We want the Jeffco community to know how seriously we are taking this issue and how appalled we are at the alleged crime,” Jeffco Board of Education President Mary Parker wrote in a letter on Jan. 21.

She said a retreat with the school board “provided us with the opportunity to publicly affirm that any crime against a child is inexcusable and to assure the community that we are actively engaged and collaborating both with Superintendent (Tracy) Dorland and our community on a path forward.”

Weiss’ responsibilities included overseeing and increasing student achievement, quality school leadership and school effectiveness for Jefferson County’s schools and communities, according to the district’s website.

An email obtained by The Denver Gazette showed that Weiss oversaw an Adult Sexual Misconduct training for Jeffco employees in December 2024, just a few days before he was terminated.

According to Datko, Weiss also took part in investigations into misconduct cases in the district as recorded in his professional calendar.

Weiss took over the position at the start of 2022, which is when the list of misconduct issues compiled by Jeffco Kids First started.

In a presentation to the school board on Feb. 13, 2025, Don Mosley, executive director for the Ralston House, said that perpetrators go to places where people are trusted.

“It’s a reverse compliment to schools, churches and athletics because good people go into those, and perpetrators want to hide in that group,” he said. “The majority of people who work in those areas are great people, but a few go in for a different reason.”

Dorland, the superintendent, said at the meeting: “We’re always willing to try new things and do better than we’re currently doing if there are ways to improve.”

District officials said every employee must pass a fingerprint-based background check with the state education agency and complete annual training in identifying abuse, grooming behavior and sexual misconduct.

The district also uses Safe2Tell, an anonymous reporting system for staff and students.

A ‘trusted adult’ 

When asked why Jeffco Public Schools faces misconduct and sexual assault cases, both Datko and Leal pointed toward the “trusted adult” verbiage often used by the district’s curriculum.

The “trusted adult” policy allows teachers to self-identify as a trusted person, allowing students to meet with them privately and discuss private matters, such as depression or anxiety.

A sign used in the schools states a “trusted adult” is someone who is there to “listen and react non-judgmentally” and “maintain confidentiality and communicate if exceptions exist,” among other descriptions.

“The reason it’s a hot button on both sides is it can be a great thing, and it can be something that gets abused,” Paula Reed, a school board member, said in the Feb. 13 meeting.

A 2023 study by Healthy Kids Colorado Survey found that 78% of high school students have a “trusted adult” they can go to for support. The survey said students reported a decline in feelings of sadness or hopelessness from 41.8% in 2021 to 25.5% in 2023.

A 2023 article in the “British Journal of Social Work” referenced studies that found that having support from a “trusted adult” reduces harmful outcomes for children and young people undergoing adversity.

Reed asked Mosley, “I am curious about how we are teaching kids about that idea and how do you know when an adult is trustworthy?”

Mosley said a culture of clear boundaries is necessary.

“How do you go about saying no to an adult when most kids are told their whole time to follow it — how to follow your instincts?” he asked. “When you start to say, ‘Here’s what teachers should and shouldn’t do,’ if they’re not doing it, if they’re violating those, you need to question it and go talk to somebody else about it.”

Ewer’s 16-year-old victim identified as Ewer as his “trusted adult,” according to arrest records.

“Just because someone creates a sign and hangs it outside their classroom that says trusted adult doesn’t make that person a trusted adult. Families need to be part of that conversation,” Dorland said, adding that kids should go home and ask adults who they see as a trustworthy person.

She also said the practice of teachers self-identifying as a trusted adult is being erased from district policy.

“We have heard feedback from our community regarding the term ‘trusted adult.’ We are working to better understand how the term is being used across our 138-plus schools,” the district’s spokesperson told The Denver Gazette Friday.

“We want our students to have adults in their communities and their schools and their friendship groups that they can talk to,” Dorland said. “At the same time, we don’t want people to just be throwing around words ‘trusted adult,’ when it’s much more complicated than just a label.”

Back in 2023, George Mumma, a retired 45-year law enforcement veteran, said at a school board meeting that the policy invites secrecy.

“They can talk to a trusted adult about issues they don’t feel comfortable talking to their parents or legal guardians about. It encourages them to keep secrets from their parents and legal guardians — the very thing that we as parents encourage our children not to do.”