When a 16-year-old student began shooting and kept reloading his gun at Evergreen High School around noon on Wednesday, the police officer assigned to the campus was not on duty.

That full-time school resource officer (SRO) was on medical leave. Meanwhile, a deputy who assumed those policing duties on a part-time basis was working on a traffic crash nearby, the police said.

The suspect critically injured two students before killing himself, authorities said.

Those details frustrated leaders of the school’s Parent Teacher Student Association, who claimed the mountain town schools have been disregarded by the school district and by the police.

Evergreen High School has a full-time SRO — a trained Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy there to assist with safety — but she was currently

See Full Page