Durango School District 9-R refuses to release information about an incident last month in which one of its employees, who was reportedly banned from Needham Elementary School, had police called on her for trespassing on school property.
District Superintendent Dan Snowberger denies the employee was banned from the school, and the Needham principal denies the incident, documented in police records, took place.
According to police records, the 911 call was made because the district’s spokeswoman, Julie Popp, was not allowed on Needham’s campus and was trespassing.
The Durango Herald asked Snowberger on Nov. 5 why Popp was banned from Needham and for a comment about the incident that took place Oct. 19.
“Ms. Popp is not banned from any campus,” Snowberger wrote in a Nov. 6 email to the Herald. “I am the only one permitted to make such restrictions in 9-R.”
The Herald also sent a copy of the police call detail report to Snowberger, which says that on the date in question, Popp was prohibited from Needham and that she “is aware she is not allowed on the property.”
According to the police call detail report and an audio recording of the call, around 5:15 p.m. Oct. 19, Needham administrative assistant Laura Mottershead called 911 to report that Popp was on school property.
Needham school call log
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Mottershead said Needham principal Jennifer McKenna directed her to call police about Popp’s trespassing.
The dispatch officer asked Mottershead if Popp knows she is not allowed at Needham and Mottershead said, “She does. She was informed.”
Mottershead told dispatch that she and McKenna would be outside the school to meet police officers.
Before law enforcement arrived, Popp left school grounds, and Mottershead called 911 again and told police dispatch that McKenna did not wish for Durango police to pursue Popp.
“I think she (McKenna) just wants to let it be,” Mottershead told dispatch in this recorded call:
