Скачать или смотреть Caprock Academy walks WesternSlopeNow through its new teacher hiring process

Student safety is always a school's main priority. It is no different for Caprock Academy, yet some recent incidents of staff having inappropriate relationships with its students have brought up concerns. Some members of the community wonder what the school does to vet its staff before hiring them.

Over the past five years, there have been two incidents with staff engaging in inappropriate behavior around students. A former teacher, Adam Burke, was sentenced to six years in prison for having sex with a minor in 2024. Most recently, on Sep. 17, Shane Chatfield, a staff member, was arrested for allegedly sending illicit messages to a minor.

WesternSlopeNow was able to talk to the Head of School at Caprock Academy, Matt Diers, to learn more about the school's hiring process for new staff.

"Everybody here, especially me, is safety so that teachers can work and students can learn," said Diers.

Caprock Academy conducts thorough background checks, including fingerprint checks from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, as part of its hiring process.

"When an incident like this happens, the first thing we do is check the hiring of that employee," Diers explained.

Diers mentioned that reference checks are conducted before interviews and that the school has made adjustments to ensure thoroughness in the hiring process.

In a statement provided on September 23, Diers informed Caprock families that the required background check for Chatfield showed no prior charges or arrests before employment had commenced. Diers acknowledged that incidents like these can happen anywhere, but highlighted Caprock Academy's record of academic success and national recognitions.

"This kind of thing happens in all places and Caprock is not exempt from that. But if you look at our record and you look at our history of academic success across the board and national recognitions and graduation rates and those kinds of things, it just goes to speak to all the good people that work here. And all the good work that they do for so many years," Diers explains.

While the investigation into Chatfield's case is ongoing, Caprock Academy continues to emphasize its commitment to student safety and encourages anyone with questions or concerns to contact Diers directly.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by WesternSlopeNow.com. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by WesternSlopeNow.com staff before being published.