Emergency personnel and the Cortez Fire Protection District struggled to reach an injured Montezuma-Cortez athlete Tuesday night because coaches were not given codes to open new gates and responders apparently had not been fully trained.
To open the high school gates, physical education teacher and coach Jarrett Watkins had to call Athletic Director Colton Trosclair, who had to call Assistant Superintendent Eddie Ramirez to retrieve the codes.
Watkins said that at first, Ramirez wouldn’t give the code to him and instead asked Trosclair to go to the school to put the code in. Ramirez ended up contacting facilities director Ray Lopez to open the gate.
“I told Colton I had a kid with a broken leg and I needed the code now,” Watkins said.
After the code was provided, the gate “hung up” three times because an antenna on the control box had been stolen. Watkins got the fire crew through the gate, but EMS had to go around the back of the school to enter.
Before the athlete broke his leg, another football player had dislocated his shoulder, and the gates delayed his mother’s attempt to take him to the emergency room.
“I’m aggravated that it took the same scenario we described to actually happen before they gave us a code,” Watkins said.
Last month, Watkins, Nicci Crowley and Mitch Taffe addressed the Montezuma-Cortez Board of Education, warning that the high school needed an athletic trainer in case a player was injured in practice or competition. The position of trainer, held by Mitch Taffe, had been eliminated earlier this year.
The board then allowed Taffe to be on the field, and he was there Tuesday to help the injured student while EMS tried to get through the gate.
“It made a huge difference (having an athletic trainer). Mitch brought out an air splint and got the leg immobilized before the EMTs ever arrived,” Watkins said. “We had to wait for EMTs to transport the player.”
Superintendent Tom Burris and Ramirez told The Journal that Homeland Security Division had recommended the gates when a vulnerability study identified “weaknesses.”
The gates were installed this summer at the middle school and high school and were put in place with a grant the district acquired for safety. Each gate has a keypad with pass codes for staff, as well as a keyless card option to swipe. Ramirez said the gates are equipped with a Knox Box, which provides access to properties.
Burris shared that emergency personnel usually know to look for the Knox Boxes on gates such as these, and the box holds keys to the gates.
“I’m not sure that our EMS from last night knew that box was there, so that’s going to be a training piece as we move forward,” Burris said.
When asked about why coaches didn’t have a code for emergency purposes, Ramirez said that the code implementation “hadn’t gotten that far yet.”
“The athletic director called me directly, and I got a hold of our facilities director, Ray Lopez. He was able to allow them access. We also had some vandalism where someone was taking the antenna off the gate system, so we’re securing that, but it didn’t delay access,” Ramirez said.
“It’ll be disseminated to all the coaches and activities director, administrator … law enforcement and fire department are all trained on that and know that, so we feel comfortable with it now,” Burris said. “It was a situation of new equipment and new access. We fell short last night, but we have already gotten all of those avenues fixed today. Moving forward, we’re in a better place than we were, and sometimes it just takes testing the system.”
Burris and Ramirez also shared that all staff have access to an E3 system on their phones that will immediately alert police and law enforcement of emergencies and can enact lockdown.
Former District Accountability Committee member Monica Plewe told The Journal that before the gates were installed, the DAC and High School Accountability Committee had proposed a way that emergency service vehicles could have “easy access to injuries and the fire hydrant at the south end” of the school, but that their concerns and suggestions were repeatedly ignored.
“The board never responds to any of the concerns or suggestions,” Plewe said. “This is just one of many concerns that came from high school parents through the SAC meetings that was not listened to. … One of the hugest problems right now is that they don’t ever bring their ideas too. They just implement all these new things without asking anyone’s opinion.”
When asked about the suggestions brought to them, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 district stood by the decision to use the gates.
“It goes to personal wants, rather than safety,” Burris said. “The gates are what was suggested by Homeland Security and our safety trainer.”
This story will be updated as more information comes available.
