Boulder police investigated Fairview High School Principal Don Stensrud for potentially obstructing the police’s sexual assault investigation into the school’s star quarterback in 2019, records obtained Wednesday by The Denver Post show.
The Boulder County District Attorney’s office declined to press criminal charges against Stensrud, and the principal’s attorney said Thursday that Stensrud was just following the school district’s policy during his interactions with investigators in 2019 and 2020.
Boulder Valley School District officials placed Stensrud on paid administrative leave last week to investigate allegations made this month in a federal Title IX lawsuit that the principal for years fostered an environment permissive of sexual assault at the high school.
In November 2019, Boulder police detectives were investigating allegations that Fairview student Aidan Atkinson had sexually assaulted multiple students. A pair of detectives interviewed several student witnesses in a counseling office at the school, but Stensrud stopped them from interviewing Atkinson, according to an investigative report released by Boulder police in response to an open records request by The Post.
“When we attempted to speak to the suspect, Stensrud quickly stepped into the doorway, placing his body between me and the suspect, preventing the suspect from coming in,” Detective Sarah Cantu wrote in the report. “He placed (h)is arms out to his sides at shoulder height, completely blocking the entire doorway and forcing me into the office (he did not touch me). He yelled at the suspect and pointed away from the office, telling the suspect not to move until Stensrud told him to.”
Stensrud declined to comment Thursday. His attorney, David Beller, said Stensrud was simply following the school district’s policy for police interrogations of students, which, according to a copy of the policy provided by Beller, says a school principal or designee should be present if possible during police interviews of students, and an effort should be made to notify the students’ parents.
“Since 2004, Mr. Stensrud has been a trusted educator and principal of generations of students in Boulder,” Beller said in a statement. “His primary concern is the safety and security of the students.”
Cantu declined to allow Stensrud or another school administrator to be present during the attempted interview of Atkinson, who was an adult at the time; his mother had met with Stensrud and the school’s athletic director earlier that day, according to the police report.
“Whether they are 18 or whether they are 16, they have to be protected by the school,” Stensrud told detectives at the time, according to the police report.
But upon further review, detectives found several unrelated incidents in which police were allowed to interview student suspects at school without an administrator or the student’s parents present, according to the report. Beller said Stensrud was not aware of those instances.
The police investigation into Stensrud for potential obstruction continued into the spring of 2020 as detectives continued to interact with him. In April 2020, the district attorney’s office declined to press charges.
“There is no doubt his actions resulted in harm to a criminal investigation,” the district attorney’s office wrote in a letter to Stensrud’s attorney, according to the police report. “However, after consideration of all available information and analysis of the legal burden of proof at a criminal trial, the District Attorney’s office does not believe it could meet its burden of proving the elements of obstructing a police officer beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Boulder police investigated Fairview High School principal for obstruction - The Denver Post
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