By Lynn Janes

The Cobre Consolidated School Board held a regular meeting at Hurley Elementary school on March 10, 2025. Board members in attendance included Gabriella Begay, and Emmarie Heredia. Superintendent Michael Koury also attended. Gilbert Guadiana, David Terrazas and Angelina Hardin didn't attend.

Although they didn't have a quorum, they continued with the parts of the agenda they could discuss.

Some of the third, fourth and fifth graders at Hurley Elementary School provided a presentation for the board. They had done Lego robotics. The kids had loved doing the Lego robotics that involves computers and coding. Many jobs these students will be seeing in the future don't exist now and 65 percent of the jobs each year involve computers and coding. The students went over some of the projects and what they had programed them to do. They created a taxi that could move forward and backwards plus honk. One other project had been called Big Little Helper, and it could pick things up. It had wheels and worked on two motors. The students had several other projects they told the board about.

The board has not had a student representative since the last school year. At a recent meeting they asked Cory Gropp, Cobre High School principal, to see if he could find a student that would be willing to fill the position.

Nicholas Zamora, a senior, provided a student report for the board. He thought this year had been going well. Interactions with the teachers, students and staff had been good for the most part. He had not heard of any negative situations or conflicts that mattered. He commented that Gropp had been doing a great job, and he had been engaged with the students.

Zamora brought up the recent lockdown of the school in the past week. He felt they could have some improvements on how those things will be handled. "You know there were some classes and students really freaking out and didn't know what was going on." He suggested some work be done on the school protocol when events like that happen. Lastly, he pointed out that the seniors had the highest test scores for ELA (English Language Arts).

Public comment

Tanya Ortiz said she had come to be an advocate for her child, Jayden Gonzales, and not to point fingers. She had other parents come forth to bring awareness they had similar situations experienced by their children with bullying at Cobre High School and Snell Middle School. "I believe as a concerned parent it is crucial to bring these issues to light and advocate positive changes that will ensure the safety and wellbeing of students." On March 5, 2025, her son's life changed, and he became a survivor of a violent attack while at school. A student with a history of violence viciously attacked her son.

Prior to the physical attack he had been bullied verbally. He decided he had no other choice but to defend himself and stop the bullying. "My son has never been exposed to any type of violence in his life." He had no idea that his choice the confront the bully would lead to being assaulted. The attack caused the need for facial stitches and sutures. He now will have a journey of recovery that will include mental trauma. He also now through social media has been threatened with retaliation and has fear of returning to school.

Ortiz continued that the attack didn't need to happen. She had viewed the video and had not seen an adult anywhere in the vicinity. The student that instigated the fight wore a tactical vest and she wondered why no one had been alerted by his choice of attire. The student has had a history of violence and possible gang affiliation. She had been also made aware of his police interaction just a few days prior. She pointed out she knew the school district did not have control of students while not in their supervision but questioned why he had not been monitored when he had been on school property.

After the incident her son had tried to call her, but she had been in a court hearing for work. He had been able to reach his older brother, and he responded to the school thankfully. Ortiz said when she had been able to see her phone not one of the calls had come from the school. They did reach out five hours after the situation.

When she had made it to the hospital, she saw her son covered in blood with his eyelid split. Her son had been told by the principal to step back and again had been hit by the other student. No one had subdued that student. Her son had smelled alcohol on the student's breath, which just added one more concern that no one had noticed.

Ortiz said, "I just want to address the issue of student security. Our kids need to feel safe while they are at school. There have been too many issues where students are being threatened and abused while in the care of the school district." She added another problem had been the inaccurate information that came through the district text. The message said the school had been put in lockdown and no one had been injured. "My son was injured." Clear concise and fact-checked communication would be crucial to maintaining the trust of the community. An ideal school environment would be the partnership between parents and educators, and more must be done to foster that.

Because of Ortiz's son's situation, more parents and students have stepped up to give voice to their experiences with that same student and his group of friends. Law enforcement quickly reacts and continues to secure the school, when necessary, but they are not security and that would not be their job. Both Snell Middle School and Cobre High School need to have security on the campuses. "I strongly urge the board to prioritize the wellbeing of our students and families by dealing with these issues head on."

Christopher Amador had students that attend both Bayard Elementary and Snell Middle School. His wife and other parents had attended the meeting to address their concerns regarding gangs, bullying, violence and threats of violence that seem to be plaguing the district. As a resident of the Cobre district and a parent, he wanted to share his perspective and experiences with the board on the issue. First and foremost, he didn't feel the Cobre district and law enforcement partners had been doing enough to ensure the students' safety and the incident the past week had been a prime example.

Amador said he knew he could not mention the student's name, but this student had been known to terrorize not only children but the community as a whole. He has actively engaged in gang activity, committed violence against others. He had also injured himself by accidently shooting himself in the leg with a firearm. In a recent attack on another juvenile, he had pulled out a knife. Before this recent attack countless reports have been made on this student to both Cobre schools and law enforcement. "We as parents did our part, but unfortunately the district and law enforcement did not." After everything that has happened with this student, he has still been allowed to come on to school property, possibly armed, wearing a military style tactical vest and is able to assault another student.

Amador added that Cobre schools and law enforcement want to make the children who had been victimized and bullied into the perpetrators. They have not taken accountability for their gross inaction and incompetence. Several months ago, his son had been threatened and bullied numerous times and had to defend himself. Even though he had not been the aggressor, he had been the only one to be blamed and placed on probation. The incident had been directly related to the one student and his group of wannabe gangsters.

He realized that no magical solution existed, and that the problem would not be unique to the Cobre district, but more needed to be done to ensure the children's safety. "My son should not be scared to go to school. Instead of focusing on academics, my son has to focus on protecting himself from violence and bullying."

Kids should feel safe at school and parents should feel comfortable sending them to school. At this time Amador didn't feel that would be the case. Amador respectfully demanded the district strictly enforce the already in place zero tolerance policy against bullying, harassment and intimidation. Certain events could have been prevented if the district had taken things more seriously.

Meeting adjourned.