A school district in Colorado is accused of assisting an underage high school student to lie on a federal form to declare herself homeless so that she could move in with her female teacher, who later was accused of “grooming” the student, according to a report.
What’s more, the KCNC-TV report said counselors at the high school kept the parents of the 17-year-old girl in the dark about the situation involving Leann Kearney, now a former social studies teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton.
‘Ms. Kearney takes interest in helping kids navigate their sexuality.’
The girl — who reportedly was a straight-A student and captain of the swim team — allegedly developed an inappropriate relationship with Kearney as early as her sophomore year in 2018.
The report said the Jefferson County School District assisted the girl with declaring herself homeless — even though she was living with her parents. The student allegedly told school administrators that she didn’t feel as though her home was safe. High school counselors purposely kept the girl’s parents in the dark about their daughter declaring herself homeless, according to school emails obtained by KCNC through an open records request.
“There’s this icky feeling that something is wrong, and as it progressed, it only got worse. Not a single person stood up and said something doesn’t seem right and reached out to the parents,” said Heather McCormick, a friend of the girl’s mother.
The mother of the girl only found out about her daughter declaring herself an “unaccompanied minor” after discovering paperwork under her daughter’s bed.
“If my friend hadn’t found the homeless paperwork under the bed, this would’ve remained sealed,” McCormick said.
The student requested that she be placed in Kearney’s care, according to school district documents.
The concerned mom continued to investigate why her daughter wanted to move out of her family’s home and in with her teacher. Then the mother reportedly discovered that her daughter had exchanged approximately 20,000 text messages with her teacher. She also found a handwritten note from 2021 detailing her daughter “kissing” the teacher, according to the documents and a sheriff’s report, the New York Post said.
‘While we have taken every step to remove this former employee … and prevent her from working in another educational setting … we recognize this is of little comfort to the family. … We deeply regret how profoundly this violation has affected their family.’
The teen’s mother brought the phone records and the note to Scott Christy, principal of Columbine High School, who reportedly said he was “aware of the situation.”
The mother claimed that Christy dismissed her by saying, “Ms. Kearney takes interest in helping kids navigate their sexuality.”
The mom allegedly sent Kearney a message warning her to stop contacting her daughter, and the mother hounded the school district to take action against the teacher.
Eventually, the school district launched an investigation into the allegations and then issued a statement at its conclusion: “Obviously, the student did not meet the criteria to be considered homeless, and the staff involved in this isolated incident were addressed as part of the investigation as the proper channels in place were not followed.”
The statement continued, “While we have taken every step to remove this former employee … and prevent her from working in another educational setting … we recognize this is of little comfort to the family. … We deeply regret how profoundly this violation has affected their family.”
Kearney reportedly quit her teaching job two years after the accusations first surfaced, and the state eventually stripped Kearney of her education license. According to the Post, the revocation document described her behavior as “grooming.”
After the student turned 18 years old, she reportedly moved to Oregon with Kearney.
KCNC in its news video showed a report from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office about the teacher’s interactions with the student.
The following is the sheriff’s office’s response Wednesday to Blaze News, which asked the agency why criminal action was not taken against the teacher.
This case was assigned to an investigator and has been investigated to the extent possible without the permission or involvement of the juvenile (now an adult) involved in the matter. The case remains open, with the intent to investigate further if the potential victim decides to participate in the investigative process at any point in the future. At this time, we do not have sufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges in this case. Should new information become available, or the potential victim chooses to engage in the investigative process, we will reassess the situation accordingly.
McCormick stated, “It’s really scary to think there are schools and teachers and administrators that are working behind your back and not in the best interest of your child.”
The school district told KCNC that it now has policies in place that ensure this type of situation never happens again.
When asked if the school district would have acted differently if Kearney were a male teacher, McCormick responded without hesitation: “Oh, absolutely.”
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Teacher arrested, Teacher sex scandal, Bad teacher, Grooming, Child sex crimes, Child sex abuse, Columbine high school, Crime, Colorado, Underage girl
